Thursday, September 1, 2016

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com




 Hi Photographer friends,

I haven't been blogging for most of this past summer. There's really no good reason why I didn't, except that I was very busy and that it has been my best summer ever (photography wise).

I spent the summer photographing for my lowest salary ever, and yet, I enjoyed my summer job more than any other job I ever had. Yes...you probably think I've gone crazy. Let me explain:

I spent the summer working for the YMCA, photographing kids at summer camps. Yep...the salary wasn't great, but the experience more than compensated for it. 

I'm retired now and around April or May, while reading the local paper, I saw an ad looking for a photographer for the summer. The assignment would be taking pictures of summer camp activities at two local YMCA summer camps. I didn't think I could get the job, as I was sure there were many younger candidates. To my surprise and satisfaction, I got the job. Sometimes, experience wins.

So I gathered my faithful Pentax K-3, my Pentax 50mm f/1.4, my 10mm x 17mm wide angle lens and a 300mm telephoto. This combination got me all the results I needed, without being too heavy to carry around.

The camps are located in the San Bernardino Mountains, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. You can look at some of the landscape images below. It’s easy to appreciate the locations. At elevations ranging between 6,000 feet and 8,000 feet, the air is thinner but certainly less polluted than in Los Angeles.

I took hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures and videos ranging from landscape, actions, activities, and the summer camp kids.







One thing that every single one of these ordinary children had in common, despite their different ages, background, ethnicity, or religion, was bright, discernible spark in their eyes. The kind of spark that, in previous generations, has produced the most extraordinary of people – those with the intelligence or persistence or determination to change humanity. People like da Vinci and Einstein and Newton and Beethoven and Hawking and Tesla and many others that have achieved so much...they had the spark.

The spark isn’t reserved for those few and far between anymore. Kids today are smarter, more empathetic, more aware, and more progressive than any other generation before. They have access to more information at any given time than anyone else before them and they want to learn. These kids will use all the resources given to them by those extraordinary predecessors and make this world their world, making it extraordinary as well. Our newest generation is entirely extraordinary, and it shows.















They all have the spark.


 Now, for you Pentax owners, I do have e-books for most of the Pentax DSLRs. You can check this site ebooks4cameras.com and even download any e-book for checking the contents. 

The K-1 e-book is available NOW.


Click on the image above to visit our e-book store. You can also download sample e-books and get the free AF front and back focusing adjustment charts at this e-commerce.








No comments: