I still draw. Quite a bit. It's more doodles and sketches that never get finished, an eye here, and arm there, a half-finished torso that is too far away from the head above it to be connected by a neck. But I find myself taking photographs. Many of them. Far more of them then I would have expected. At first photography was merely for keeping a record of our life. Now it's become a much larger thing. I've entered photographs in contests, something I would rarely do with my drawings.

I think it's the instant gratification of it, something that didn't exist in the film era. I take the picture, check the back of my screen, and I can see the composition. Areas of the screen blink white and black to show me if there is blowout from over-exposure. I quickly take two or three more shots. I adjust the lights, move things around, take more shots, check the screen. It's more creative then I thought it would be.

Once I'm back on my computer, I dump all the pictures to disk. I go through the photos, throw out the pics that are out of focus, not composed well, or just plain boring. Then I start making adjustments to the good pictures. Sharpening and spot removal are the chores, but cropping, exposure and saturation sliders, vignette, and other options allow for creative controls that really allow a transformation from a pic to a beautiful Photograph.

It was unexpected. My drawings will probably remain mostly doodles and sketches, because I know that the camera is just waiting, and the ideas for photography seem to flow easier then the ideas for drawing lately.




Either that, or I'm just going though a 4 year phase.