Why I chose photography- My journey so far

I chose photography for a multitude of reasons. I always had an interest in art and design. As a kid, I spent a lot of time drawing. As time went on, I expanded into other forms of art. While in college, I played music. I still do to this day, but not to the extent that I did back then. Over the years, I've had a number of disposable and point-and-shoot digital cameras.

In the fall of 2024, I purchased a cheap DSLR and a few lenses online. It was nothing fancy or expensive, and at the time, I was only thinking that I'd use it to take a few nice photos here and there. I wasn't expecting it to become its own thing. I wanted something nicer than photos taken on my phone but couldn't justify hiring a professional for fun photos of random things when I wanted.

One of my first "good" photos taken in the fall of 2023.

At the time that I bought that camera, I had a music project going with a few coworkers. I primarily used the camera to take pictures of my instruments and document our progress with some photos. I knew nothing about editing software nor proper exposure. Everything was shot on auto or one of the random preset art settings on the camera. All my edits were made on the free, open source paint.net or GIMP software.

The following year, I was informed that I would be going to the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms to support an exercise. Having been to a few of the same exercise in previous years, I knew that downtime is where people got in trouble. The boredom is real, and unavoidable. I took my camera and a tripod. This is where my photography journey truly began. I learned how to shoot manually. I learned how my shutter speed, aperture, and ISO affected my images. Prior to this, I was just taking snapshots. Now I was actually photographing life around me.

One of my most popular photos from Twentynine Palms. The photo is from 2024, but the editing is more recent.

I shot, sent jpgs to my phone, edited, and went out and did it again. It was truly a learning experience, and I was juggling a 12-on/12-off schedule while doing so. While I hated the exercise itself, the photos and the memories I helped people capture made it worthwhile. Overall, it was a great experience from an artistic perspective.

When I returned from the exercise, I knew I needed to get some more lenses to cover a wider variety of subjects. At that time, I only had the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera. I found someone who had a pair of older Nikon zoom lenses that worked perfectly for the camera and were great for capturing more distant subjects that those that I could just walk up to.

I ended up with a 55-200 and a 55-300. While they were older lenses and not quite the best, they certainly extended my reach and made some wildlife photography possible. I used that 55-300 as my primary lens for nearly 85% of my photography from there until I began buying more professional gear. The 55-200 was better suited for portraits; it had a slightly wider aperture at 55mm and was sharper overall but was slower to focus. The 55-300 had issues with aberrations and had a slower aperture, but its focus speed was adequate for slow moving birds and helicopters.

This remains one of my favorite bird photos- it has a simple elegance to it, and while it required some heavy editing due to the poor noise performance of the D3400, I still keep looking at it and planning to use it for ideas in the future. Taken with the Nikon AF-S 55-300 VR DX.

As a birthday gift, I received a Sigma 150-600 Contemporary zoom that I still use to this day for bird photography. Its extended reach comes in very handy when looking for distant subjects. Despite being a third-party lens, its performance for the price is unmatched. At the time, it was on sale for about $900, while the closes Nikon equivalent was nearly three times that price.

Using such a long and heavy lens had quite a learning curve, as it weighed more than three times that of my camera body, but the results were more than worth it. The day after I received the lens, I went on a nature walk with the Buena Vista Audubon Society and captured some of my first good bird photos that didn't require heavy cropping.

A red tail hawk overlooks Lake O'Neill on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

While I had a great lens and some good photo software now, I still had some issues. My biggest dilemma was dealing with sensor noise on my D3400. On a bright, sunny day, it wasn't an issue; but when it came time to shoot at night or on overcast days, it became readily apparent.

If you look at the red tail hawk to the left, you'll see that there's a lot of details that are just a bit fuzzy. The camera and lens nailed the focus, but I had to raise my ISO to compensate for the cloudy day. I learned to keep my birdwatching to sunny days when I could keep my shutter speed around 1/1500" or higher and my ISO below 200. It was still a great camera for nearly everything else I wanted to do, so I wasn't extremely worried about it at the time.

For all my military subjects, I never really went above 1/250" on my shutter speed, so I was able to manage my exposure given the slow lenses that I had. Some days I had great photos, other days, I didn't. It worked out well and allowed me to work with my camera and learn how to use the slow shutter speeds to my advantage.

A UH-1Y over the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles County.

My squadron ended up putting me on a flight to document the Los Angeles Helicopter Route. At the time, individual units in the Marine Corps were allowed to maintain their own social media pages, but this changed later in the year to only commands with a dedicated public-affairs officer and reserve units only. My photographic adventures for my command's social media were short lived.

At the end of 2024, I went to Okinawa as part of the Unit Deployment Program. While there, I managed to purchase a Nikon D850. I played with the idea of getting a mirrorless camera, but I would then need to get new lenses, which I couldn't reasonably afford. I also looked into the D780, as it had many features common among mirrorless cameras, but in the end, the D850 won, as the extra 21 megapixels would be handy for wildlife photography.

A crossing guard holds back traffic at the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival in Okinawa, Japan.

I went to Okinawa over the winter, and as such, wildlife wasn't as prevalent as it was in California in the summer. I quickly learned the basics of street photography while there and took advantage of the many street markets and festivals that happen through the year.

Street photography became a new facet to my already extensive portfolio. I didn't know it at the time, but it would become my main area of focus going forward. While wildlife is fun to do, it can be tricky, and you need to know when and where to go in order to capture certain species. The nice thing about street photography is that it's always there. Once of my friends told me that you can just randomly point into the crowd, and you'll probably get something if you do it enough. He wasn't wrong.

While I was in Japan, I fell into the bottomless pit that is film photography. I picked up a Nikon F3 and a few rolls of film and went on my way to see what would happen. I started simple- plants, landscapes, and portraits. I didn't want to waste film on street photography yet, as I was still learning. After a few weeks, I took a chance and went into Naha with a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 and my F3.

Upon my return to the states, my film adventures took over. I have amassed a sizeable collection of film camera and lenses. While I primarily shoot film now, I still keep my digital handy and use it for a good number of subjects and projects. I haven't quite taken the dive into medium format, but in due time it will happen.

A woman at the shops in downtown Naha in Okinawa, Japan.

A vintage Ford Mustang at the California Classic Cars repair shop in San Marcos, CA.

A Zenit TTL made to commemorate the 1980 Moscow Olymics.