One of the greatest things about living in Colorado is the beer. But the next best thing is the scenery! Wow!
With that in mind, and the holidays upon us, please consider a purchase of a NATURE PHOTOGRAPH for someone for a gift. Or for yourself.
Colorado Nature Photography Gallery
Thank you!
Not everyone demands top quality from a photographer. But as a professional with 30-years of experience as an award-winning published photojournalist, that’s all I offer. It certainly costs more, but you get the best quality and service.
If you don’t want that, please don’t call me.
I don’t hand over image files because I care that they are finished professionally and look their absolute best–after all, it’s my work. Yet there are many people with cameras who will give you all the images after the shoot, saying, “Do what you want, print them at home, I don’t care. I just like to shoot and walk away.” If that’s what you want, I ain’t your guy.
If you would prefer cheap and quick over professional quality, please don’t contact me. If you don’t see the difference between professional photography and amateurs with a camera and some software presets, I can’t show you.
Just like if you can’t feel the difference between driving a Mercedes and a Kia, I can’t help you. And if you think Denny’s tastes as good as a chef-prepared meal, I’ve probably got nothing for you.
But if you can, expect to get something more delicious than you even imagined! Portfolio: KennethWajda.com – Studio phone: 720.982.9237
I have a project titled, The Wise Photo Project, where I photograph elderly people on film, because they often have very few photographs taken of them. Here are my parents, my Dad giving my Mom a kiss as she lies in a hospital bed in the living room of his house. This is why I photograph the wise! They won’t be here forever, and they are beautiful in their old age.
Photography and journalism share a similarity. Both used to be respected and valued for their quality and integrity, and just this week, the New York Times said that on Facebook, they are treated as being equal to fake news sites, because they are both given the same credibility by the public.
That is the same with photographers and the public when they hire photographers.
Photographers used to be very well respected. You’d hire a photographer for his/her knowledge on how to capture your family’s personality, your company’s specialty, or document a special event with the ability to tell that event’s story. It was not about gear, and so much more than pointing a camera. Or getting focus nailed. Photographers didn’t spray (shoot like crazy) and pray (hope they get something). They worked with proficiency and efficiency.
Professional photographers are never about gear. Great photographers know their cameras and then get them out of the way to create meaningful images of the subjects they are hired to photograph.
Nowadays, there’s a perception that everyone’s a photographer. I disagree. Everyone has a camera. That doesn’t qualify everyone as a photographer. Everyone has a stove–that doesn’t make everyone a chef.
As a professional, often my competition is the person who got a camera for their last birthday, plays with their cameras on weekends, and the work that they do, no matter how mediocre it is, has become the accepted norm.
And it’s the desired product, since it’s cheap.
All their photos look alike–shot wide-open, toned via a computer preset with the popular look of the day. That’s the look that they’re all buying from the post-processing software gurus selling them all the same effect. That’s why they all look alike. Have you seen wedding photographs lately? Talk about cookie cutter.
Professional photographers know and see the difference. We know why it’s important to professionally print photos. We know that a professional photographer is much more than just a person with a camera.
We know lighting. We know how to pose to bring out your best features, to make you feel your best, so that we can best capture that personality on film. We even know where and when to shoot, how to coordinate colors in clothing with backgrounds. Photography is as much a psychological game as it is an mechanical one using a camera.
True professional have never competed with the Sears and JCPenney portrait studios, who sold cheap, but were never in the photography business but rather the sales business. I worked for them. They gave me sales quotas I was expected to meet for print packages. I quit within a week, and went to work for a daily newspaper.
Professionals were hired for their vision, their unique ability to use a camera to create in ways that go far beyond Photography 101.
But Photography 101 photographers are cheap. More and more of them hanging their shingle out every day, because they got a camera, and they are competing for the work that the seasoned pro used to get, and families and businesses are choosing the mediocre (and cheap) work.
That’s photography today! High quality and mediocre are both available, and people buy poor quality photos all day long. It’s made mediocrity the norm. I know people who say they work professionally with a phone camera. It’s incredible.
If you are looking for quality photography locally, you have two choices:
There is a difference.
Who will you use for the most important subject, your family’s photographs? I am not just photographing for you, but for your children’s children. I’m creating historical documents, visual memories for future generations, legacy photographs professionally printed at a custom pro lab that will last for generations.
I don’t hand over the image files because I care that they are finished professionally and look their best. After all, it’s my work. Yet there are many people with cameras who will give you all the images after the shoot, saying, “Do what you want, print them at home, I don’t care. I just like to shoot and walk away.”
Who will you hire for your business portraits and product shots? Your customers see the difference when they see quality, even if they’re not sure why it’s better. Quality is perceived through professional work, that’s why top companies use advertising agencies and art directors, because it ultimately affects the company’s bottom line
If you don’t see the difference between professional photography and amateurs with a camera, I can’t show you. If you can’t feel the difference between driving a Mercedes and a Suzuki, I can’t help you. If you think Denny’s tastes as good as a chef-prepared meal, I’ve got nothing for you.
But don’t believe you’re getting the best if you don’t hire a professional. And likewise, don’t believe what you read on Facebook, because it really might not be real news at all, and those New York Times reporters are a lot more trustworthy, if only they could get readers to turn to them and stand out from the glut of mediocre ‘news’ sites.
The quality of photography and journalism has certainly been lowered by substandard photographers and fake journalists. That’s the state of photography and journalism, circa 2016 A.D.
Not only do I enjoy walking this antique flea market when I visit my folks in PA, but I love photographing some of the people and getting into conversations about photography because of my Leica IIIf that I’m shooting with.
I carry that camera everywhere I go, because it’s small enough to fit in my front jeans pocket with the lens collapsed into the body. (I take the case off.)
And these are the wonderful photos it makes. The camera is from the 1950s. The lens from the 1930s! (Click the photograph to enlarge it.)
Film looks like past tense. It presents history.
Film is for images that matter to me. See the difference? First is film, second is digital. Same time, same place. http://TheFilmPhotographer.com
Ohmigod, is that a Saturn? And look, remember when you had to pedal your bike!
The year is 2066.
We’re teleporting to different parts of the earth, holding meetings on virtual beaches while sitting at home, and having robots do all the chores.
And we’re using the latest camera technology, which means no camera at all–just look at something and it’s captured.
We’re lamenting not having any photos from the first quarter of the century, since we didn’t bother to print any of our pictures, and they all got lost in dead computers and outdated phones and hard drives that last booted up decades ago. And some old program, Facehead, or something, that was supposed to save them all. Yeah right!
Plus, we don’t have any computers that use USB anymore! How ancient that technology!
My Leica M2, still going strong in 2066.
As we sit looking out the window, our Leica M2s and M3s and Rolleiflexes still just as functional as they ever were, we load a roll of film and take a walk to go capture some street photos of the day.
The sky is full of PTDs–personal travel devices. Everywhere, our brains connect with each other through telepathic waves. Cars have long ago ceased to exist.
And we find ourselves thinking about the good old days. Like 50 years ago, when things were simpler. Sure there was that terrible fiasco with President Trump, but thankfully he was quickly arrested and tried for his crimes. And then President Sanders’ brought all nations together. War ended and America prospered, which is why we have such a great economy, plentiful jobs and USA-made robots and devices today.
But still, taking photos of present day just doesn’t seem as cool as the old days. Back then, there were those cool Nissan Rogues, BMW sedans and those crazy Mini Coopers. God, haven’t seen one of those in years!
What I wouldn’t do to be able to go back in time to 2016 and photograph them. What a treat that would be. But that’s crazy talk.
Look at that old BMW, when they still had wheels! And drivers!
That’s just what we did in 2016, fifty years ago, when we were enamored by photos of old cars from the 1960s and 1970s. So busy looking at the old cars, we missed the shots of those cool 2016 cars then.
All I know is I’m glad my Leicas lasted. And my Rolleiflex. Because when film made its resurgence in 2022, we were the only ones who knew how to make real photographs. The rest make memory records, but we make photographs.
Which is why we’re the wealthiest photographers because of our forethought. Way to go!
“Ah, look, the good old days.” (Overheard circa 2016)
Time traveling. That’s what people will be doing 50 years from today in 2116–looking back on life in 2066 (“Ah, the good old days,” they’ll say.).
That photo of the PTD fuel station that looks like nothing now, just a bunch of hovering vehicles powering up? Add 50 years. It needs time to become valuable. Once time passes, familiar elements fade away. Buildings change. The cars, the shops, the cities. Then the photos take on meaning.
I’m no math whiz, but here’s the equation: [P+T-GP!] (Photograph + Time = Great Photograph!) The photo needs to be good, too. Let’s not forget that.
Ask Stephen Shore. Or William Eggleston. They both knew the equation.
If I were back in 2016, I’d go out and shoot ordinary things, with an eye to the future. Because maybe I’m not shooting them for me. Maybe they’re historical photos for the Shorpy galleries of tomorrow. (So glad that company is still going strong, with galleries around the world.)
But alas, I can’t time travel. They say that technology will be ready in another twenty years but they’ve been saying that forever.
I better get shooting!
