 |
| Daniel Nielsen |
Photography is one of my most heated passions. I took my first photograph at the age of eight with a Brownie twin lens reflex. It was of my older brother standing in our front yard in Muskegon, Michigan. It was an artless photograph, but it got me hooked on photography for life. I loved, and still love, the fact that I can capture something I see with my eyes, put it on paper or a computer screen, and show it to others.
I honed my lenswork while working for decades for newspapers in Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado and finally back home in Michigan. I'm currently using a digital SLR, but I had a great time using a constantly changing stable of cameras that at various times has included a Nikon S2 rangefinder from the 1950s, an Olympus FV half-frame SLR, a Nikkormat FS, Nikkormat FT, Nikkormat FTN, Nikon FTN, Canonet rangefinder, Yashica rangefinder, Nikon F4s, Nikkormat ELW, Minox B and a few others. Yes, I can be an equipment geek. But I like to think that flaw doesn't get in the way of my creativity. After I bought my first digital camera, a lowly Nikon Coolpix 990, I never looked back at film. I still have a Coolpix 8400, but strongly prefer my Nikon D200 and a Sigma 10-20mm lens. I've always loved wide angles. Lately, I've been working with an Olympus EPL-1 and an iPhone 4s, both interesting tools with which to create photographs.
Landscapes are probably my favorite genre, but near-macro work is fun. Night photography figures strongly for me lately, primarily because I get off work at midnight and I'm out and about then.
I arrived Traverse City more than 20 years ago after spending time in Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Wisconsin. I stayed in this northwoods beach town because it offers a scenic and social landscape that nurtures my personal creative juices. Summer is my favorite season, and I do my best to fill it with as much sunshine, sand and water as possible.
In addition to straight photography, I enjoy creating digital paintings based on my photographs. See some examples at truepainting.blogspot.com. I created several presets for a Windows program called Dynamic Auto-Painter. You can download the presets I created (using the screen name f2stop) at http://dap.mediachance.com/archives/1262#more-1262.