My name is Jason Reusch and I am an evolving photographer. I say that because good and bad photography are subjective judgments and even great photographers take bad pictures. The best you can hope for is it to evolve and get better at expressing yourself through photography.

Who should read this blog and what to expect
If you are at the point in your photography where you are thinking about upgrading to a Digital SLR, or recently upgraded, you will benefit the most. It's not the equipment that matters, it's the level of interest and commitment that equipment tends to indicate - you want to improve your photography and are looking for information about how to do so.

If you are further along in photography you might enjoy a trip back to some basics or the occasional more advanced topic.

This is a pragmatic blog. My goal is for there to be something useful you can take away from every post. I promise not to blog more than once a week. It takes time to digest, try, and learn.

Even if you think my pictures stink as long as you learn something that helps you improve your photography I consider that a success. And if you acknowledge my pictures stink less than they used to at least I know I am in fact an evolving photographer.

A Short History of Me and Photography
I started taking pictures more than just casually with my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot A20. I had the camera about a year before I got a shot on vacation in November 2002 that prompted me to pay more attention to where I pointed the camera (see Where It All Began). After that I shot 300-500 pictures a year for the next two years, mostly when traveling.

In 2005 I traveled to Brazil and Japan and shot about 1500 pictures. Taking pictures became something to do unto itself, not just something to do along the way as a matter of photographic record. In early 2006 my son was born and the camera found a purpose outside of travel. In September 2006 I got my first SLR, a Canon Digital Rebel XT. After that, it was all over. I started carrying the camera with me everyday. My patient wife called it my "blankie". In the two years that followed I shot 18,635 pictures.

I started doing crazy things like getting up at 4AM to trek out into the woods with all my gear and a light strapped to my head or walking around downtown Chicago for hours at night in the middle of November just to take pictures.

Along the way I sold the kit lens on ebay and picked up two new lenses. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (aka the plastic fantastic, you can't find a better lens of its kind for the money). And the versatile Sigma AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS. A host of other smaller bits of kit came along for the ride - memory cards, bags, etc. and a good polarizing filter.

After two years and almost twenty thousand pictures, I decided I was serious enough to sink more money in to feed the addiction and purchased a Canon 50D
in October 2008.

Over the past two and a half years of serious interest in photography I dove in and learned about all kinds of things like f-stop and the rule of thirds from all kinds of sources like books, magazines and especially other people. I hope sharing my experiences of what I learned and how I learned it can help others engage their interest in photography. One of the most rewarding aspects of photography continues to be the culture of sharing and excitement.

Full Disclosure
I use Canon equipment and always have. I have no religious fervor for Canon and my intent is to be as equipment agnostic as possible. Occasionally, some techie stuff might be Canon specific. If you can translate any Canon specific lingo to another camera system please add a comment and share your know how.

I hate printers. They are a nightmare of frustration between the digital and analog world. Paper jams, ink refills and ream after ream of aggravation. I like to take pictures, not print them. This site will have nothing to do with printing, except maybe to discuss my experiences with various places I gladly pay to do the printing for me.

Links on this site to products at Amazon.com use my affiliate account and I will make a commission if you buy something.

All written and photographic content on this site is my original work and copyrighted by me, unless specifically attributed to someone else. The content of this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. In short, you can do anything you want with anything on this site as long as you don't use it to make money and attribute the work to me. If you do want to do something with my work that does involve making money, contact me. I like money too.

If you are looking for my old blog, "Blog Ho!", it has been blarchived for all eternity.