Welcoming Myself to DFAP

Hi,

My name's Rebecca.

I've never done digital photography, although I have done year 9 photography, back before digital cameras were available to play with in schools. (I found the knobs and dials a pain, and the development room stinky. Nevertheless I enjoyed making photograms, playing with focus, and also manipulating the development process through solarisation).

I'm interested in photography simply because I have no idea how to approach the matter. My visual arts background is much more illustration based, ie: pastel on paper, ink, paints, mixed media.

I have enjoyed working digitally in past, don't get me wrong. I've worked with Painter, Illustrator (minimally!), InDesign, Photoshop, and DreamWeaver. Although, probably, I've used Photoshop for all the wrong reasons, I'm sure! It will be great to finally learn what it's made of.

To me, the 'creative' aspect of photography is not very apparent. I see it more as a interpretational documentation of the world. Then again... that could be said about all art. Hm.

I do appreciate repetition/pattern, irony in society, details in nature, contrast in nature. I find myself sometimes just standing and looking at certain things like a crushed sugar lolly on the road (which I snapped with my phone camera), a hoopless basketball ring (or backboard I should say), or a trees pitch black silhouette against a dusk sky. I suppose my ability to appreciate more things, with more sensitivity will be refined during this unit.

I don't know much about history in photography, nor about its genres. Happy to learn, however. (I have a secret curiosity about portrait photography... I really don't know why.)

Looking forward to the fiddly frustrations ahead!