PB:What does photography mean to you?
TS:The meaning of photography for me, has changed through my 24 years as a photographer. The meaning changes as I change and grow. There was a question that I asked myself when I started photography. That question was: “How can I make a difference in this world with pictures”? It took me a long time to realize that I was answering that question every shoot and and with every photo I captured or created. The difference now as I understand is, I bring joy to the people I work with. For example, a bride and groom who now have wonderful images and memories from such a special day, a pet owner who may have just lost their beloved pet but now has wonderful photos to remember them by, and so on.
PB:One of today’s main discussion points amongst photographers is about the use of digital photography; do you use digital cameras?
TS:I do use digital photography as my main medium of image translation but, I also still shoot film. I shoot film for me and for how it makes me feel to capture images on the medium I honed my skills on. I will have to say that even though I shoot digital, I don’t shoot digital like it’s digital. I treat it like it’s film. I don’t take a million shots of the same image and hope I have something. I use all that I have to make sure that I’m capturing the best shot with the least amount of shots. It makes for a smarter workflow and truly enables me to become not just a photographer but, a craftsman.
PB: What is the influence of digital technology on your photography?
TS:One thing that I like about digital photography is that, I have creative options if I need or want them. If I want to “mess” with an image, I can in Photoshop for example and, not worry about destroying the original images. With film I used to do a lot of manipulations on film to create different effects and sometimes you would “trash” a negative in the process and unless you had a couple that were the same well…..you were “out of luck” so to speak. That’s were digital technology is fun!!! You can really do a lot of stuff. The downside is, “you can do a lot of stuff”!!!!
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