Mapping the Course

Here are the categories and lists of topics I will tackle throughout the blog to help you (and me, honestly) map out the course for how I became a professional photographer:

1) Get the Goods: buying the necessary equipment
2) Get Connected: attending photography classes and meeting other talented shooters
3) Get Out There: self-promotion, marketing, and networking
4) Get the Job Done: snagging paid assignments

Now granted, I still consider myself to be a newbie with so much more to learn. But there is no denying how quickly I have progressed in less than a year. My friends and colleagues keep saying it -- but it really got driven home when the manager of my local Wolf Camera Store said even he was amazed about how far I've come. (Guess that's the kind of pat on the back get when you know all the staff by first names because you've spent a year's worth of lunch breaks salivating over photo equipment you know damn well you can't afford). Some day this Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III will be mine. (Of course by the time I can afford it, the company would probably would have doled out at least five more intermediate to advanced models).

A great deal of my progress can be attributed to the wonderful resources we have available here in Denver's photographic community. The schools, photography clubs and amazing landscape and cityscape right in my own backyard, so to speak, is a photographic oyster. I mean, if you lived in Colorado, and DIDN'T eventually find your way to the mountains where wildlife and nature abound, you should be shot! But I think the wonder of finding a true passion and having a natural eye is what gives me the drive.

I want this blog to a personal diary as well as a self-help tool with useful topics for photographers new to the craft. I will include "How-Tos" when I've learned and can implement new techniques. I will devour books and review them. And I will test out equipment and software so you can decide if a product is worthy of being bought or being ignored. If you see a "BREAKING NEWS" in the headline....you will know that something really cool just happened. Maybe I just got a great new gig or purchased some coveted equipment. Or maybe I've just been honored with some special award. Keep coming back for updates. And if you have some thoughts, ideas or topics you want me to investigate, hit me up. Sometimes, I will throw in "AN ASIDE" if I have a random thought or want to share some juicy tidbit about something happening in my life, so look for those too.