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Why “The First 10,000″?

(Or, “Julia Child and the Art of Photography”)

The First 10,000 is a blog covering tips, techniques, reviews and news for the novice photographer. On the off chance you were wondering what Julia Child is doing on a site about photography, it’s like this: I used to love watching Julia Child on WNET. Besides her wonderfully quirky voice and the delicious-looking food, the allure was that she made cooking seem accessible, and maybe even slightly dangerous.

See, Unlike the Food Network, where stuff tends to be heavily edited (especially the mistakes), the typical Julia Child episode left all the awkward bits in. Now, maybe it’s just my overactive imagination, but I could swear that once when she was preparing something, it caught fire, and – true to form – she just broke out a fire extinguisher with a typically self-deprecating little joke.

I can hear you asking, “Okay, your point is? And by the way, who the hell are you?”

Second question first. My name is Paul. I’ve worn as many hats over the years as Bartholomew Cubbins, but the two that fit the most comfortably are writer and photographer. I’ve shot film and digital, with plastic cameras, SLRs, point-and-shoots and camera phones. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve shot thousands of photos, and a lot of them were crap.

Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to the first question, and the point of this site. It should be pretty clear by now that I don’t make any claims on being a professional photographer. So where do I get off writing a blog about photography? Well, I’m writing this blog for the same reason that I pick up a camera every day and head out into the world looking for photos to make; ’cause I enjoy it.

I also think there’s a lot to be said for knowing the what, why, and how of photography, rather than just taking random snapshots. If you take the time to learn the craft, you can get your best shots by intention, rather than by chance. So this is a compendium of tips, techniques, philosophy, reviews and news. It’s things I’ve found useful in my learning that I’m passing on in hopes that you’ll find them useful, too. If you don’t have to shoot as many awful photos as I did to get to the good stuff consistently, this will have been worth it for both of us. And like a certain chef, I’ll be putting it all out there, for better or worse… the good bits, the horrid bits, the minor mistakes and the moments when it all goes up in flames.

Feel free to participate. Comment, or drop me a line. This is here as a learning tool. Your experience and your input will be to someone’s benefit. Thanks for stopping by. And if you find this site useful, tell a friend.