In March of 2002 I decided to hike into a newly designated area of "Town Forest" which sat directly across the road from where I lived at the time. My intention was to investigate this plot of land and see what I might find in the way of something interesting to photograph.
Several months earlier, I purchased a macro lens attachment for my digital camera so I brought it along with me, not knowing what I might find, though knowing something would ultimately catch my eye.
It wasn't long into the hike when I came across a group of three birch trees with much of its paper like bark in curls draping from the sides of each tree. I knew immediately this had possibilities, so I set my camera to Macro mode and started shooting.
The beauty of using a digital camera is that you can see the results immediately. This enables the photographer to return to the subject and refine the images to ones satisfaction on the same day under the same lighting conditions, which was exactly what happened on this particular shoot. In fact, I returned several more times to this group of birches and others over the next few days and captured a couple hundred images of which I eventually narrowed it down to nine that make up this series I call "paper birch".
Tech Notes
Olympus C2000 digital camera with Macro lens attachment
Photography has been an interest of mine for quite a while, though it wasn't until I enrolled in my first photography class while attending college in the early 1980s that I truly understood its potential.
In the past several years since I've been using digital camera technology, my interest in photography has grown considerably. Though I do still enjoy using film cameras on occasion, the digital camera just seems to be a better fit these days. Perhaps it's because of my background in graphic design and the daily use of computers in my work.
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Also contributed to:
- Issue 14: Transformation
- Issue 12: Abandoned well house
- Issue 6: Anatomy of an Anchor