| Customer of the Week: Dennis Small |
added 4/14/2008 12:21:11 PM |
Customer Profile: Dennis Small
For this week’s Customer of the Week, it’s all about a single moment in time, and above all else, capturing what he sees. He spent the majority of last year capturing those single moments in stunning shot after stunning shot of wildlife in a local park. He thrives on the great outdoors, whether it’s the heat of summer or dead or winter, and what really turns him on is seeing something in the photo that he didn’t see through the view finder. He calls it “the weepy eye moment.” We call it great photography. Check out Dennis Small, our Customer of the Week.
Your happiest photo accident?
Shooting into the sun exactly opposite of what I should have been doing and captured a once in a life time shot. Since then I try to not follow rules. The more things people tell me I should try the more I am convinced to try the opposite. Among the people who I believe take some great photos; no two of them do the same thing.
Your biggest photo dilemma?
A friend begged me to do his wedding. I told him I don’t do people however, they wore me down. I made no guarantees. I had bought a flash but had not used it before. I took a few shots in the house a couple of days before. The day of the wedding I drove about 50 miles to HOLY HILL CHURCH which was a big white tent shaped like an old military style Quonset hut. Inside it was pretty chilly and a salamander was started to heat the place. Three fluorescent lights hung about 12 feet over head. No windows. I was sweating bullets. With the building not having heat and then the salamander warming things up the ceiling began to rain the moisture. You could hear the drops on metal chairs. Because the noise interfered with the ceremony someone turned off the heater. Instant camera fog made shooting impossible. There was no place to stage any photos, nothing good like a regular church. They happened to have this blue velvet curtain that separated the stage area. The curtain really helped offsetting the cast shadow with all the white. At the time I hadn’t done many people pictures and less with a flash indoors. I do mostly candid type photography so I had never thought about trying to set wedding pictures up. My wife went along and she helped. To my surprise I was able to get some decent photos and they were happy. Not me. I thought about all the things I could have done better. Will I ever do a wedding again? Only if I am a guest and everything is candid!
Your favorite photo of yours and why?
An egret flying with the shadow of its head showing through the wing. I only had my camera a few days and not knowing much of anything took the shot into the sun as the bird lifted off and was flying low across some grasses and small stream. The camera was on full automatic, trigger down and good thing it was.
Where do you live?
Enola, Pa. Lucky me that my family located so near the Susquehanna River with so many smaller streams, wetlands and a few land preserves that provide a large diverse group of models.
What do you do for a living?
I took a buyout and retired from the 9 to 5. I carve birds and do custom woodwork which I planned to pursue as the next career until the camera became the main time consumer. I hope it becomes much more.
Tell me something you plan to do today.
I am cutting the leg off one of my camouflage pants to use on the lens to help me get closer to my quarry. Then I am going to paint my tripod with bow paint which I think will be a lot more flexible than using coats and cheaper.
Till next time,
Amelia Levine
The AdoramaPix Blogger
