In our early years, while Mary Ann liked photography too, I was the one who schemed to get the camera and took many pictures and experimented with different film stocks. I had a winder to make my own film canisters from bulk Tri-X or FGRP. I had the chemicals to develop my own. At least with the black and white films. Color was far too complicated and expensive. I took vacation photos, extreme closeups and astrophotography. While none of my pictures were artistic, I did have a reasonable eye for composition. I never desired to be a photographic artist, I was much too interested in the gadgetry and pushing the limits of what could be done with the tools.
Mary Ann took a different route. Since I married her, she has always had an artistic itch. But at first, she didn’t have the training for it. Her stick figures needed work. But that didn’t stop her. Decade by decade, she developed the skills. She would latch on to a technique and push it to it’s limits. Our mailbox has a painted squirrel on it. Christmas decorations and other household knickknacks have her touch.
And then, she started using my 35mm cameras. It was as if she’d finally found the right tools. Of course, my cameras quickly reached their limits as she found her muse. More expensive cameras. Bigger lenses. Photoshop. Professional grade tripods. Camera levelers. It goes on and on. And that’s just my gadget guy’s perspective.
Her artwork developed rapidly. Yes, there were some great photos taken with her Olympus point-and-shoot digital camera, but with professional tools in her hands, she took off. Tens of thousands of photos later, maybe a hundred thousand, she has blow-you-away landscapes, world famous flowers, and her own unique style that she hopes to show off at the Montreal convention. She’s an artist that has found her media.
So, my little snapshots have dwindled. I take memory pictures and research pictures for my stories. But I have no delusions. Mary Ann is the photographer of the house. So to illustrate. Here is the best of my fireworks shots (taken with my iPhone) and a sampling of the many shots that Mary Ann took.