I go long periods of time in between mentioning anything about my photography business on here. But I believe my first paid shoot was back in 1996 or 1997 so I've been doing it a long time. It has taken a back seat for several years now as the demands of my family and my regular job have taken up all of my time. I believe with the exception of one small album all the photos I post on here are just snapshots, most taken with a simple point and shoot camera.

The majority of my portfolio consists of images shot (gasp!) on real film. And they're in a (another gasp) real leather photographers portfolio that you can touch rather than a virtual one. I have had two film scanners over the years and was unhappy with both of them so most of my work is not available to be seen anywhere unless I let you look at my portfolio. I have an archive of probably five thousand negatives from all of the shoots I've done.

I have a glamour photo shoot scheduled for tomorrow night which is what got me thinking about this and why I decided to blog. Glamour and boudoir photography is my real passion behind the camera and what I feel most comfortable shooting. Tasteful Playboy style photography is a very competitive field and there are a lot of professional photographers out there doing it as well as some large chain studio like Glamour Shots. In years past I have run some specials around Valentines day when the demand is greatest and had some good success. If it's at all possible I want to do it again for 2009.

Of course I still enjoy nature photography and family portraits as well. I am doing some Christmas pictures of the kids within a few weeks so I will definitely put those up for you all to see.

From time to time on here, on Myspace and on a couple of other message boards people ask me photography questions or for advice. I love teaching photography and its one of the things I miss from when I worked for Cord Camera here in Columbus. I would love it when photography students from the local high schools would come in and ask me about dodging and burning or the characteristics of certain film stocks. This was prior to the digital revolution, however, so now I'm sure I'd feel like an old-school dinosaur trying to teach all of these things that can now be done with the touch of a button.

I'm not so old fashioned and stubborn that I failed to realize digital is here to stay so I have made that transistion. I have to admit there are advantages. It is far lest costly for me to operate in the digital realm and it opens up a whole array of options for what I can offer a client.

In case you are curious, here is the equipment I use. I have a Canon EOS KISS X, which is the Japanese version of the EOS 400D. I have always used Canon camera bodies and lenses so this was a natural choice for me. It accepts all of the EOS lenses I already own which was a plus because I have quite a lot invested in lenses, hoods, filters and all of that. I purchased the Japanese version from Broadway Photo in New York, where there are several giant photographic retailers. This saved me a few hundred dollars and all I had to do was convert a few settings to English and I was good to go. I have an Opteka Vertical grip with a double battery pack insert and a AA adapter. For studio lighting I use a monolight with a 24x24 softbox and a modeling light and an AC slave with a 30 inch white umbrella for main and fill and then a second slave as a background/hairlight. This is a basic three light portait set up but I change it all around depending upon what I'm shooting. I use an infrared transmitter on the camera hot shoe as a trigger or in tricky situations I'll run a PC flash cord to the main light. I sometimes use an on-camera Promaster flash with a Lumiquest softbox as a main light and an array of reflectors, diffusers, snoots, and grids.

I have a Savage brand background stand with an 8 foot rise and a 12 foot crossbar. I currently use an Interfit flash meter which is actually very inexspensive but I've found it to be very accurate. I used Tiffen filters on my lenses but I may be adding a Cokin system to my arsenal. I use Bogen Manfrotto and Slik tripods.

So that's my basic gear. Unfortunately it sees far too little use but I'm really hoping to change that and find a way to work more time for photography into my life. As my digital portfolio begins to increase I will probably start putting more stuff online. Eventually I hope to go ahead and put up a real website strictly for my photography and to get all of my old negatives scanned properly.