Photography
July 2010 was an important month for the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, and it was an important month for Donald’s photography.
As numismatists will recall, the CCAC formed a subcommittee on excellence in coin designs at its June 2010 meeting at the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs. While on the campus of Colorado College, Donald and several other CCAC members took classes. Donald chose a digital photography class taught by Tom Mulvaney and Clark Fogg, two of the best photographers of coins and medals in the United States.
Donald borrowed his daughter’s Nikon D80 for the class and he added a Nikkor 60mm f./2.8 Micro lens to the outfit as the instructors had recommended. When Donald came home from Colorado, he continued taking pictures and began reading books about digital photography. By September, when the Nikon D7000 was available in the stores, he ordered one with the Nikkor 17-105mm f./3.5-5.6 kit lens.
In 2011, Donald added a Nikkor 70-200mm f./2.8 VR lens and a Nikon 35mm f./1.8 lens, along with a tripod for low light photography. These lenses and the tripod enabled Donald to experiment with high quality optics. Soon after, he turned his attention to art photography.
The fundamentals of photography that Donald had learned in the early 1970’s from Harold Bardes gave him an indispensable foundation. Many photographers today rely on the automation of modern digital equipment. When Donald started, however, none of this automation existed, and he had to learn manual focus, manual exposure and manual flash. Much of that knowledge returned to him “like riding a bicycle after a long time,” he said.
Donald enjoys photography and he often brings his camera with him when he participates in other activities. Some of his work can be viewed as attachments to articles that he writes and presentations that he gives on different subjects. His art photography can be seen on his blog, www.FineArtPhotographyStudios.com.
