We see life thru the lenses of our experiences.
There have been three constants in my life: experiences, lenses, cameras.
A really bad case of conjunctivitus when I was seven left me wearing glasses ever since. All the drama that came with a lifetime of wearing glasses engendered a curiosity about lenses and a wonder at how different glasses and lens types drastically changed how I saw the world.
My father was a photo hobbyist, and growing up there were cameras and lenses around all the time. About the same time I got my first pair of glasses I started becoming aware of my fathers cameras. He had the coolest of cameras with their dials and switches - and lenses. The rush that would come from the instant of clicking the shutter and "capturing a moment" was intensified when I discovered that there were so many ways to "make a photograph." Being able to not only freeze a moment in time - but to be able to enhance the moment by using lenses and lens settings and different points of view was fascinating to me. I've been studying and playing with cameras and lenses ever since.
Many have asked over the years about the origin of the hard to pronounce "rickography" name. It's comes from an conversation I had with a parent way back when I first starting posting sports photography for parents to view or download online. At a next game a parent on the sidelines who'd seen a recent posting came up to me and chastised me for my lack of adherence to photographic standards. "Photography - you call that photography??" he exclaimed. "Why my kid could take better pictures than that!"
I realized then as I do today that my style is different and breaks some of the rules of photography and composition, but again - we each see the world a little differently: thru the lens (or lenses) of our experiences.
As I absorbed the man's criticism as he waited for a response that day, the answer I came up with was "We’ll, I'm sorry that you don’t like my photographs, mister. Please accept that they represent MY version of photography." Later, as I was considering a name for my web site, "rick-ography" seemed to sum all this up.
There have been three constants in my life: experiences, lenses, cameras.
A really bad case of conjunctivitus when I was seven left me wearing glasses ever since. All the drama that came with a lifetime of wearing glasses engendered a curiosity about lenses and a wonder at how different glasses and lens types drastically changed how I saw the world.
My father was a photo hobbyist, and growing up there were cameras and lenses around all the time. About the same time I got my first pair of glasses I started becoming aware of my fathers cameras. He had the coolest of cameras with their dials and switches - and lenses. The rush that would come from the instant of clicking the shutter and "capturing a moment" was intensified when I discovered that there were so many ways to "make a photograph." Being able to not only freeze a moment in time - but to be able to enhance the moment by using lenses and lens settings and different points of view was fascinating to me. I've been studying and playing with cameras and lenses ever since.
Many have asked over the years about the origin of the hard to pronounce "rickography" name. It's comes from an conversation I had with a parent way back when I first starting posting sports photography for parents to view or download online. At a next game a parent on the sidelines who'd seen a recent posting came up to me and chastised me for my lack of adherence to photographic standards. "Photography - you call that photography??" he exclaimed. "Why my kid could take better pictures than that!"
I realized then as I do today that my style is different and breaks some of the rules of photography and composition, but again - we each see the world a little differently: thru the lens (or lenses) of our experiences.
As I absorbed the man's criticism as he waited for a response that day, the answer I came up with was "We’ll, I'm sorry that you don’t like my photographs, mister. Please accept that they represent MY version of photography." Later, as I was considering a name for my web site, "rick-ography" seemed to sum all this up.
©Rick Olsen Photography