First Ten Years < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >

In these pages you'll fine a retrospective of the first ten years of my photography, including ten of my favorite photos.

I bought my first "real" camera in January of 1999 in Hong Kong. I had had point&shoots before, but wasn't happy with their limitations, so the very first thing I did when I arrived on my first trip to Asia was to head to Stanley Street. The street was (and still is) famous for its photography bargains.

I bought a Canon 50E with nifty focus points which could be changed just by looking at the point through the viewfinder. I still wonder what happened to that technology - it worked even while wearing eyeglasses! Not knowing much about photography at the time, I had read that Velvia was the best film. At 50 ISO it was much slower than the 400 ISO negative film I was used to, but after seeing the results I was didn't look back.

I headed on a whirlwind tour of mainland China with the study abroad group I came with, visiting Guilin, Beijing and Shanghai before returning to Hong Kong for the semester. I shot this photo on that trip, on one of the very first days. We were on a river boat tour, admiring the stunning scenery in and around Guilin. The water level was low, so we stopped at a small village which usually doesn't get tourists (so we were told).

I received some surprised looks walking around, as I was probably the only six feet tall blonde Nordic guy around. I saw this elderly gentleman, and was struck by the incongruity of the colorful laundry and his weathered looks. He seemed just as struck by how I looked. I smiled, pointed at my camera, and he returned a smile. I took this shot which I still consider one of my best.