Welcome! This is the first in my series of articles about photography.

I know what you are thinking (or at least what you probably should be thinking): "Who is this guy and why should I listen to him?" Great question! The world is full of people trying to come across as experts in one discipline or another. Some of these people have Websites or blogs and publish their thoughts for the entire world to read. For some reason, when we see something in print, we automatically assume that it what we read accurate and definitive. But let's face facts: anyone can set up their own Web site and start evangelizing on the subject of photography (or horticulture or bee keeping or any other subject). So how do you know which ones are worth reading? Which ones contain accurate, useful information and which ones are bologna?

Well, I don't know anything about horticulture or bee keeping, so you are on your own with those sites. But for photography, I use a simple test to determine which authors I pay attention to: I look at their photographs. If I like their photos, I'll listen to what they say. If I don't like their photos, I'll probably move on. Photo Websites are designed to help make you a better photographer, right? And if you listen to the person who authors the Website, you'd expect that your photos will start to look more like the photos of that author, right? So why would you pay attention to information written by someone whose photos you don't like?

I saw a photo Website once (I don't remember which one) that had an article on it that claimed you should be able to make a finished print in something like 6 minutes (I don't remember the exact length of time either). "Hmm," I said to myself, "that seems unlikely." This article was about traditional wet darkroom techniques, which is a lot more labor-intensive than most people's digital workflow. In a wet darkroom, it takes me about 6 minutes just to make a test strip. It can take me days to make a final print. So either this 6 minute technique was going to revolutionize my life, or this guy was full of hooey. So I looked at some of his photos. I'm not saying they photos were bad (they weren't), but they were not up to my standards for final prints. So I didn't bother to read the article and moved on. So this is my take-home lesson for this first article: When it comes to photo Websites, if you don't like the photos, you should move on. This applies to my site and any other site, book, or magazine that you come across.

So stop now, and go look at my photos. Don't like them? No hard feelings, there are lots of other photo Websites out there for you to check out. If you do like them, sweet! I'll be posting more articles as time allows and hopefully I'll be able to share something that will help make you a better photographer.

-Eric