The history of the photography of Fred Stearns.

I have been taking picture since I received my first camera in Elementary School. As a kid, I took pictures of what struck my fancy. As time when on, I started to focus more into nature type images, travel, and historic buildings. I learned some of the basics of photography from my father's activity in the Charleston Camera Club. While in High School, I received a 1/2 frame 35mm camera for my birthday. This was a new adventure as I now had control over the exposure. Not knowing any better, I shot slide film. As time went on, I was no longer able to find mounts for the 1/2 frame slide. Then it was time to enter into the SLR world. Between then and know, I have own several different cameras, including point-and-shoot digital cameras in addition to the SLR cameras. Lately, I delved into the Canon world and have several bodies, including a DSLR, along with the lenses.

I will have to note here that the unconscious decision to shoot color positive film turned out to be a very good decision. I now like to say that the slide film is a harsh mistress. There is very little latitude for error in the exposure. Until recently, I was not aware of the set of tools used to effect a crop of the slide while it was still mounted. So, I learned to frame in the view finder as much as I could and to take care with the exposure.

My outlook to photography has developed over the years, as I am sure that it will continue to evolve. My intent is to make the photographs reflect the world as I see it as accurately as possible. I use filters as needed to achieve this goal. Obviously, I have scanned many slides to post on this web site. I do use Photoshop and do adjust the results. I try to make the adjustments to restore the quality of the slide to the scanned image. With the DSLR, I shoot in the camera's RAW format. These come across with the camera's interpretation of the conditions. As I am still learning this new field, I will be making adjustments in this as well. These adjustments are again intended to bring the photograph to a representation as close to what I saw as I am able. Dust motes on the sensor will also be removed, as is standard for DSLR photographers.

I enjoy making pictures. I hope that they give you as much enjoyment as they give me.