Shadowchaser's Zazzle Gallery Showcase

By trade I drive over the road and in what some today refer to as simply a Big Truck.
I still prefer 18 Wheeler or Semi myself but the times are a changing and always seem to be.

Photography is my primary personal hobby and one that has become a kind of passion and is primarily what lures me to websites such as here at Squidoo. I began with the skills of an amateur photographer and though I have upgraded my camera equipment several time still consider myself to be exactly that. Still I have managed to expand my hobby to something beyond casual image sharing and into something a bit more interesting and perhaps financially rewarding.
Visit my area at Zazzle.com which I call Shadowchasers Realm to view some of what I do with photography!

Since everyone on the web is at a different state of awareness or general knowledge of it I have felt I might form a worthwhile niche here at Squidoo in sharing some of my experiences in combining photography with various free web resources that in my opinion definably help one in expanding their horizons.
Of course I will display some of my creativity here and there but we both know Squidoo is free and so are any other websites and or software I may mention as well.
Because I wish to talk a fair bit concerning some of the software and their respective usefulness I plan on reserving such discussions to other areas in my space here at Squidoo rather than right here in my profile section.

I went into Over the Road Trucking back in late 1999 and thanks to a long interest in the countries history and centuries old evolution found traveling through the USA to be amazing to say the least. From traveling through the somewhat still Wild West with few modernizations to the East where green seems to be everywhere the beauty often seemed to surround me.

The ability to stop and photograph such scenes were not nearly so plentiful however.
Originally I consoled myself with the belief that such an immensity of nature simply could not be routinely captured. At least not by me.
After all how do you just stop and park a Semi along side the roadway for even a small portion of the mountain ranges in Oregon, Washington state or California and photograph what is of interest.
Then there is the problem of getting the angles and light right I soon discovered.
So, for the first few years of cruising the nations highways and Interstates I settled for simply having had the pleasure of seeing such landscapes and not keeping them for photographic posterity.
As time passed one close friend who had an avid interest in both nature and photography and one relative as well coaxed me into trying a little harder to photograph some of what I saw out there.
So in early 2003 I decided to give it a shot and started with a fairly simple Intel web cam.
A nice camera for close quarters but not so good for long distance shots. As I viewed my simple photographic memories I found myself inflicted with the very real desire to do a lot better.

In 2006 the web search was indeed on to find a good yet affordable camera that had enough features to truly capture the majesty I so often came across. After some lengthy research at various camera related web site and including Amazon.com I choose a Konica Minolta Dimage Z6.
I felt I had found photographic magic with this small but powerful camera and happily used it for about 2 years when I decided to upgrade once again to a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-50 10 megapixel camera. My decision to upgrade was based more on a desire to have greater zoom and the higher resolution the Panasonic offered. Both cameras in my opinion turned out to be very good purchases often produced images that were and are vivid beyond casual expectations.
Most recently and as of August 2009 I upgraded again and stepped into the realm of the DSLR with a Pentax K7. Though somewhat more challenging to use due to it's greater amount of features it is the most powerful camera I have ever held.
I found the Panasonic to be easier to pre-estimate the way a scene would look before actually shooting it thanks to it's viewfinder with a What You See is What You Get view and yet the Pentax does of course offer far greater capturing ability, with far faster shutter speeds and with the right lens plenty of low light capability as well.
As new lenses are costly I choose a Pentax DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL IF Lens as a starter lens. If I have any disappointments using the Pentax I am able to see that it was I and not the camera that blew the opportunity for a scene.
A part of my photographic philosophy as an Amateur Photographer is that if I shoot 20 pictures of a beautiful area and only 5 are worth keeping I have done well. If only one is worth keeping and showing, well then surely I didn't. That let's me off my on hook somewhat but allows for casual over time improvement and a bit more enjoyment of the overall experience.

Beyond all of this personal history into my view of a hobby loved the world over as I began top acquire a fairly large collection of scenes possibly worth showing and sharing via the web I began looking for web sites that offered greater capability then just posting images for comments from viewers. Nothing wrong with that at all and I do some of it and have for several years but there are web sites that inspire personal creativity using your own images. Of the best of those I am aware of using your images to make salable items such a posters, prints, postage, decorative magnets, calendars and mouse pads is something else again. Zazzle.com was the first of such web sites I found to be free and allow such an immensity of possibilities for item creation. Currently this is where I place my best images and make use of various pieces of software to take every image to it's finest limit's.

Squidoo impresses me as being one very unique web site that helps with such an effort in near immeasurable ways. Like Zazzle it offers a wide range of communication and link-ability to those web sites you and I may wish to show others.
Such as adding in your web site plus your Face book and might as well link to your MySpace page as well and beyond. Now that's getting found from just one place, WoW! I have been on the web for about 12 years now and have long been interesting in creating my own personal web site and back when I first began web site such as this weren't to be found or at least I didn't find them.
Things have changed greatly since way back then and now the possibilities are so many. So if you are into photography why not let yourself dream a little and from that see if you can't take your photographic interest to the next level and show off your imaging skills.
Beauty may well be in the eye of the Beholder and there are surely plenty of beholders out there but perhaps there is even more beauty than all of us can ever discover out there to be had. Some waiting just for you and some for me.
I wouldn't let having a simple camera stop me and I wouldn't let a few bad images either.
Let those good ones take you further and further and I feel sure you will find yourself and your personal dream have become photographic memories of where you were and will sometimes bring smiles from friends who can help make that beginning effort priceless.
So who said a picture is just worth a thousand words?
The limit's are often those we self impose, opportunities we create small in numbers to those everyday life unexpectedly affords and beyond the seen and understood lies new adventure small and large of innumerable quantities.

Good luck with your interest, hobby or otherwise and may you find something of beauty in every day and perhaps here and there you will find it to be with you still, photographic in nature or not!

Shadowchaser's Pages

• Powerful Free Software for Image Creativity
• Photography and Imaging related websites

See all of Shadowchaser's pages