Preamble: Why This Blog

For 2012, I made a slew of New Year's Resolutions. Perhaps like you. I'm a realist, and in the back of my mind I know that not all will be seen through. Such is life. But one resolution I made is to "feed a hobby"...and I fully intend to make good on that. My hobby is photography and I plan to spend more time improving my skills. Let me rephrase....I will spend more time improving my skills. Jees....2012 isn't even 9 hours old for me and I'm already slipping... :)

Over the last year, my interest in photography was rekindled. And I've done more reading and studying on the topic then I'd ever done in the past. And if you're not on Google+ already, get there. And circle me. There's a very vibrant and active photography community. Being inspired by others' work has been great, and I've learned quite a bit out composition, some about lighting. But I'm still walking uphill when it comes to post processing. Not so much what tools are available - there are plenty of folks that share their workflows. Nor how to add an effect or correction - the web is a great place for how-to guides.

What I find is missing is why an effect is added. Why is more or less light needed in a particular image? Why add definition? Why burn? Why dodge? My instinct is that there will be iterations between post processing and the field work. It'll be a cyclical process. For me, I think this'll be getting more in tune with the atmosphere and feeling of a photo whilst I'm taking it. And remembering those feelings and bringing them back into the digital darkroom.

I intend to update this blog every couple of weeks. As you'll see, I'm an Aperture user, so many tool references will use Aperture parlance. But I think the concepts will translate across tool sets. And I'd really like feedback, positive or negative, on the forthcoming entries. The whole point this is to pass on knowledge and get better at photography in the process. And I really hope you don't leave one of my posts looking downward, shaking your head, mumbling "Why did I get subjected to such a eyesore of a photo?" :)