This is the beginning of the blog for Ken Shaw Photography. While the blog was launched online in February of 2012 I decided that I needed to go back to the spring of 2011 to begin setting the foundation for why the blog was started and my desire to pursue with greater desire the yearnings of my heart to enable the deepening of my photographic passion.
I have wanted to upgrade my camera equipment for years. Using the vast resources of the internet, I have poured over equipment specifications; daily followed numerous blogs of photographers, manufacturers, rumor sites and related resources; read endless reviews and built my wish list for the camera, lenses and accessories that I desire. I have lamented the inability to get a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) system mainly due to budget restrictions and other life priorities. I have found plenty of reasons to complain about the limitations of the point & shoot equipment that I have and lack of other components that I feel necessary to shoot the photography that I envision.
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[/frame_right]However, as I reflected on this attitude, I realized that it was inhibiting my desire to pursue photography as an art and passion. I realized that I needed to change how I looked at the equipment I had and work with it, to push its limits and get the most out of it I could.To focus and work with what I had, not what I didn’t. With this shift of focus, I started to look at the images I had and see what I could extract from my library of digital images.
Over the past number of years I have had a dear friend ask me repeatedly… “What are the desires of your heart?”. As I often reflected upon this question I realized that photography was the common thread that kept coming up during my times of reflection. It rekindled a creative passion that started in high school and led to my first SLR film camera (Nikon F2S) just after moving on from college. Time, career, business travel and life changes have a way of changing our focus.
During the years that I had let my photography slip away, I had increasingly developed my skills in the digital realm, becoming very proficient with professional image editing, desktop publishing and other forms of digital creative applications. Added to those skills were years of working with digital wide format printing and color managed work flows. All of these are valuable tools that can augment those of a digital photographer.
I found myself looking forward to this renewed passion for photography. And with that renewed desire, I recognized a need to alter my attitude regarding my lack of equipment and rather pursue what I could do with what I had and trust that the desire and passion would be honored and allowed to develop.
So, that is the background that led me to a shift in my outlook on my photography and a renewed pursuit of this creative outlet… at least the short version.