(quick Bio)

Just like Calvin of "Calvin and Hobbs"

I enjoy seeing things from a different perspective. Life has so much more than we see.

Back in 1983 (I was 18yrs) my father bought a "Canon AE-1" and used it once or twice, he said it was a pain to use. I asked if I could play around with it and maybe take it on my usual weekend trip to the golf coast (to party w/ friends). At first, as a typical 18yr old boy, I took photos of the women on the beach. Within a few weeks I was setting up flowers, wine glasses and other oddities around the house. I played around with sunlight coming through the windows and flashlights lying on the floor. Again at 18, I would take the camera to daredevil locations to get that unusual photo but quality of the photos seemed to elude me. In a few months I started to set up one scene and place the camera on a tripod to play with the settings of the camera. I found my sweet spot setting that was fairly close most of the time so… I set off again.

Being single and under daddy’s roof I could spend a few dollars to have the film developed. But after a while I found out shooting photos just to be shooting photos can get expensive so I became a lot more particular in my selections of subjects. Between the years 1988 and 1997 I took thousands of photos (35mm) from as close as the family kitchen to weekend trips hundreds of miles away from home. I must say, I had some breath taking photos in the batch.

Only once did I consider going pro and even started the process. I had fair equipment and an office space ready for me to move in. One morning (early 1994) I woke up and thought, “ I need to get my gear together, I need a little break”. Later that morning I sat outside drinking a cup of coffee and realized that, that was the first time I ever thought of photography as a job and also the first time I wasn’t looking forward to it. I canceled everything and put my camera gear away.

About a year or two later, just after my divorce, I cleaned up my cameras and hit the road again. This time the only reason I left was to take “photography trips”. I would pick a town somewhere within two hour of my home and go! At that time my mom and step father were into airplanes (they had a few of them) and my stepfather had a fighter trainer Yak-52 (WWII) he flew in air shows. They would ask me along and I was more than glad to go. Hundreds of photos, air to air/ air to ground/ ground to air, it was some of the most fun I ever had with a camera at my side. (Try manually focusing with 3Gs! It’s a little tough!)The fun to me was taking the photos so I rarely kept anything that was done for someone else.

I had a little lull after 1998 and although I did still take photos it wasn’t anything near what I used to. I remarried and we had a little girl. I took plenty photos of her (35mm) and kept the negatives in a shoe box. One day feeling a bit down I went to the shoe boxes and culled out nearly all of my photos/negatives. I had a few favorite 8X10s framed and a few in a sort of photo album. Now with my awesome hide sight I see that I should have kept the photos I have thrown away.

My first Digital Camera was the “Canon S5 IS”, although my wife and daughter each had their own point and shoot, I was lagging behind in the digital age. I chose the S5 because I thought I may need to transmission into digital photography but boy was I wrong! Using a DSLR is virtually no different than a 35mm SLR and I should have used my brain to figure that one out. The biggest difference is you do not need to have photography skills to use a DSLR because of post processing.

Anyway, I’m getting back into a cool grove this year (2011) when it comes to photography and its getting more fun as the time passes. I may not shoot photos that the average man would feel is photo worthy but then again, that’s always been my thing!

Enjoy life, its too short to sit and watch pass, be a part of it and remember, perspective is everything!

M.W. Duhe`

I prefer "Canon" equiptment but only because that was the first camera I used. For digital photography I use regularly a Canon "6D", Canon "Rebel XS" and a Canon "EOS 20D".

(Nearly all the photos I post here have been altered, I keep all of my originals (untouched) on my external hard-drive. I post here to share them not store them.)