Bridge to the mountains of Many Glacier, Glacier National Park / Rebecca Latson.
I'm always interested in knowing three things about a photographer: what brand of camera they use (why that really matters, I don't know, since all cameras take great images), what they carry in their gear bag, and how they became enamored with photography in the first place.
My father was a photographer. Oh, not a 'professional' in the sense that he paid all the bills with his work, but his images were certainly professional quality. He used his Mamiya twin lens to amazing effect with black & white film, which he developed himself in the basement of our Columbia Falls, Montana home.
My love affair with photography all started when my parents bought a Kodak Instamatic for me while I was in middle school, living in Kentucky (I think that would have made me about 13 or so). I know I am dating myself: remember those square flashes that came 4 to a pack allowing for 4 photos with each flash?
My first SLR (a Pentax) was purchased when I was a senior in high school. But did I really know how to use that SLR? I kept the setting on 'Auto'. That setting stayed on 'Auto' for my college years through life in Seattle and Montana and early on after my move to Texas, where I purchased my first digital camera: a 2MP HP-brand point & shoot. I remember rumblings of consumer digital camera development when I still lived in Seattle, and my reaction was 'Digital camera? Who's gonna use that?'
Once I had that 2MP camera in my hands, I never looked back to film.
The camera setting, though, still remained on 'Auto'; it wasn't until I took my very first photo workshop in 2008 to Glacier National Park that I started really working with manual settings (on my brand new Canon full-frame 5D). It was around that time that I also introduced myself to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom. and the photo sharing site Flickr.
After returning to Glacier on my own in 2009 I went on that same year to visit Grand Canyon National Park. This was the first time I'd ever visited Grand Canyon as an adult ' the only other time I'd been there was when I was 3 years old and I didn't get to see much because Mom was afraid to let me too near the edge for fear I'd fall off. In 2010, I decided to start my own photography website to be followed later on with my photographic blog site and Facebook photography page. I also have a Twitter account now (RebeccaLatson50). Plugged in and turned on. Life is one huge Photo Op.
Bright Angel sunrise, Grand Canyon National Park / Rebecca Latson.
I got my start with the Traveler when Founder and Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek noticed my work on Flickr and Facebook. I sent him the link to my blog site so he could see not only my photography but examples of my writing. The rest is history.
Because of my association with the Traveler, most of my trips are geared toward national parks. I love travel and continue to go out and about as my vacation days allow (I have a non-photographic day job), cameras in hand. That's why I have (in addition to Glacier and Grand Canyon) traveled to Rocky Mountain, Hawai'i Volcanoes, Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Mt. Rainier, Big Bend, Denali, Lake Clark, Katmai, and Acadia National Parks within the space of 7 years.
The beauty of Many Glacier, Glacier National Park / Rebecca Latson.
Through the years, I have owned Nikon and Canon digital SLRs, along with a series of Minolta, Nikon, Canon and Pentax point & shoots. I'm involved with wedding photography, portrait and portfolio photography (I've shot model and belly dance promos for some extremely beautiful women) and event photography. I'm a Getty Images Contributor and a staff photographer for The Merchant Prince at the Texas Renaissance Festival. I've photographed dance troupes like the Colombian Orchid Ballet and CAFÃ Dance and I've recently developed an interest in aerial and aviation photography, WW II warbird photography, and airshow photography.
If a fortune teller or psychic had told me years previously that I would be doing all these things with a camera, I would have looked at him/her oddly and thought it a funny joke on their part.
Everything I know about photography is self-taught, aside from the occasional workshop or online tutorial. I just keep taking photos. I keep learning new editing techniques. I keep at something until I feel comfortable with it, then move up the next rung of the learning ladder. Because of this, I tend to re-work archived images with the intention of improving upon the previous edit. Thus, I have learned to never delete a photo just because I think it's not that great; I can't tell you the number of 'loser' images I've re-visited and saved from the digital trash bin.
That's what you should do too, you know. If you want stellar national park shots, then you need to keep on taking photos, keep on practicing, and keep on learning. You never know where you and your camera will end up; you might even find yourself contributing to the Traveler!
Looming over the canyon, Grand Canyon National Park / Rebecca Latson.
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