about soulflower fine art photography

My photography is a celebration of the simple beauty which surrounds us in our everyday lives, a celebration of those I love in my life, and a celebration of those I have loved and lost in my life. It is a personal experience where I find peace and tranquility exploring color, shapes, and textures. With macro photography and closeup photography, I hope to engage the spirit and emotions of the viewer, evoking a sense of appreciation and mystery for things we often take for granted.

My first "serious" camera, a gift from a family friend, was an old 35mm Pentax with a long lens and a 2x converter. I was in High School at the time and never used it much to take photographs but I'd spend hours focusing and messing around with settings. Fast forward, many years later when my husband purchased a top of the line 35mm Canon with a 50mm and zoom lens as well as an assortment of gadgetry to go with it. This camera got a lot of use but I was always disappointed in my photographs; Layne's were always beautiful but I thought mine were rather dull and uninspired.

Then along came digital photography. One day a friend showed me her fancy new Olympus C3040 and I instantly knew I had to have one. My husband and I take birthdays seriously – no gifts at Christmas or other holidays – but for birthdays, we generally go all out. He was set to order a kiln because I wanted to pursue firing my pottery. So, it took a lot of convincing him that I had changed my mind. The digital camera was what I really wanted not the kiln... at this time.

As always, he came through for me. When I opened the carefully packed box, it was love at first sight. I couldn't stop taking photographs. And, with the immediate feedback digital photography offers, I quickly began to see my photographs dramatically improve.

That was four years ago. For the past year and a half, the Canon EOS D60 has been my camera of choice. With it's 6.29 million effective pixels, 3 fps, state of the art CMOS and more, the results are beautiful. It goes without saying that I won't be giving up this camera for a very long while but it can't hurt to dream about a Canon EOS 1Ds, can it?

Thank you for visiting Soulflower Fine Art Photography,
Jan Marie Schmidt

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