Shooting For Yourself

I wanted to talk about shooting for yourself. A couple of months ago I picked up a Canon 1DS MKIII from Samy's Camera in LA. I fell in love with the image quality. It wasn't the pixel amount, rather the smoothness of the colors and highlights. This won't be a review, there are plenty on the web. What I wanted to share was the new love affair I have with this camera. I am getting gorgeous image files and prints at 17x22 on an Epson 3800 that have to be seen to truly appreciate.

Anyway my point is that I started shooting for myself again and not just when there were jobs. Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua of Burns Auto Parts said once, that you should shoot what you love and make the effort to shoot personal projects.

While I was surfing in San Onofre with a close friend of mine, I saw him do something that caught my eye. He was rinsing off the saltwater in an outdoor shower surrounded by bamboo. I decide to carry my camera with me that I happened to have in the car. I snapped a couple of shots and later at the condo I looked at them and was inspired. After some beer (a lot of beer and an Opus X cigar), he finally agreed to go back the next morning and take some shoots.

I have had a chance to present these shots to some clients and the response has been very positive. The whole idea of shooting more for myself has led to more interest and from an unexpected place. More on that in the next post.