photography of sean arthur joyce
To me, the lens of a camera is equivalent to the painter's brush, the musician's scales, and the poet's words. From the time I was a boy of 8 or 9 years old, I've had a camera close at hand.
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Autumn Burst 1
Autumn Burst 2
Autumn Light 1
Autumn Light 2
Autumn Rust 1
Autumn Rust 2
Cemetery 1
Cemetery 2
Cemetery 3
Tree Trunk 1
Tree Trunk 2
Carpenter Creek
Garden 1
Garden 2
Kane Creek
Snow Trees 1 '06
Snow Trees 2 '06
Snow Trees 3
Driftwood
Kelp Bauble
Kelp Tree 1
Kelp Tree 2
Kelp Tree 3
Ogden Point Crow
Seascapes 3
Beacon Hill Park - May '05
Ladybug
Marsh Grass
Pearl Fern
Rock Art - May 07
Star Pear
Treebeard Bark
Tulip Art 1
Tulip Art 2
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I can still remember the antsy anticipation, sending off rolls of film taken on my Brownie camera and waiting for the developed photos to return in the mail. We lived in a remote corner of northern BC so they often took a couple of weeks to arrive. But what excitement when they did! It was like seeing the results of a science experiment or a magic trick
Then in high school I learned how to use a 'proper' camera, the Pentax K1000, and the school darkroom. That experience instilled in me a love for black & white images that will never be fully eclipsed by digital photography. Colour hides a multitude of sins for the photographer. Not so black & white: it demands that you know your craft. And no other medium can capture shadow and light quite so poetically.
When I started freelancing for newspapers in 1990, I bought myself one of the re-issued K1000s with a 28-80mm Pentax A Series lens. That economical, sturdy precision machine helped me pay the bills for nearly 15 years before it finally gave out. (Probably if it had been one of the originals, it would still be working.) Truly, 'a thing of beauty'
And then came digital. Actually, some would argue it's still 'coming', a technology that's still a work-in-progress. Some photographers from the old school of mechanical SLR photography will go to their graves swearing film is superior. I'd have to agree on every level except environmentally. Though now that I've just bought a Pentax K100D I may have to revise that opinion!
Most of the images shown here were taken with what I call an 'instamatic' digital (for those of you old enough to recall the cheap old 110 film Kodak instamatics), a 5 megapixel HP Photosmart M425. As convenient and compact as it is, for someone used to all the advantages of SLR photography it's like going from a Lexus to a go-kart. A few shots here were taken with the Pentax K1000 and digitally scanned. (See if you can spot the difference in the 'Textures' slideshow.)