#YourTurnChallenge
was a 7-day blogging challenge started by Seth Godin's Special Projects
Lead Winnie, which I was honored to take part in. And I'm gonna keep
going!!! I've decided to extend the challenge to 30 days. I will blog
everyday from Jan 19th until Feb 17th. Wish me luck and happy reading.
Being a Jack I gotta add another trade to my plethora of passions….photography.
As a kid I was always around a camera, one of the perks of your Dad being a
pretty awesome photographer. He showed me different ways to alter a photograph
to make the shot your own. This gave me the freedom to think opening about my
approach to taking photos.
I won’t really explore this art until I was living in NYC
where I worked at a modeling agency. As part of my assistant gear I was given a
Polaroid camera which meant I was in charge of taking pictures of new models
that didn’t have photographs. This was so clients could see what the newbies
looked like on film. Just cause someone looks good in person doesn’t mean they
will on film or vise versa. Being surrounded by the best of the best in this
world gave me the opportunity to corner photographers and pick their brain on
how to shoot. This was a huge help and tool to developing my eye. Another was
practice, practice, practice.
Every weekend I’d take the camera home with a bunch…more
like a TON of film, which I was sooooo not allowed to do, and I’d shoot
everything, my friends, drunk parties, time at the beach, the street,
everything. I actually created a wall of shame in my loft of a bunch of
Polaroids stapled to the wall. After a weekend my friends would be eager to see
what photos I put up. It became an honor to make the wall, which I kind of
geeked out that everyone got into it so much. Over the years the wall actually
grew large enough to become the wall.
Since I thought photography could have been my career I
learned how to develop film and prints. I even had a darkroom in one of my apartments.
What a blast, I’d spend hours just playing. I still have a great bond with
shooting it’s just not the same as hammering or forming metal. To my surprise I
actually use photography all the time with metal smithing. I have to document
most of my work so it’s super handy to know how to shoot.
Currently I shoot mainly with my Iphone but I am taking my
Holga film camera on my US
tour. It’s a plastic camera that is medium format and is known to leek light
which creates some great artsiness to pictures. The Iphone is good for quick
instant photos and to help set up a shot so I won’t waste film but there’s no
way I could take this trip without sticking to my roots of film. I gotta do it
for me and my dad. Just not right any other way. Some people say film
photography is a dying art ‘HA!’ I say, when something is made to last, it will
last which means someone will always be shooting film and of course listening
to vinyl.
*I'd
love to hear from you, have questions? Comments? Please contact me at
casey [at] caseyshepparddesigns [dot] com Thank you again for reading*
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