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About
A Little Something About Me
Hello! I am a life-long resident of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area and have enjoyed photography since I was a kid. Back in the days of film photography, my parents actually had their own darkroom for the development of images. At that time I used various point and shoot camras ranging from the venerable 110 to a Minolta 35mm. My primary subject was always the landscape scenery in America’s National Parks during family vacations.
With college and work, I lost touch with photography for a period of time and returned to a world of digital with the DSLR dominant around 2015. I bought a Canon Rebel EOS T5 as the Canon ecosystem was also where my parents gear interests were, thus facilitating lens borrowing. I used the T5 for a good number of years, but purchased a 6D from eBay to get into the full-frame world.
While my interest in photography was on and off again beginning in 2015, it was the COVID pandemic that really put my photography bug into overdrive. I began watching Youtube videos, reading online articles, and purchased a few books to try and get to where I could see like a photographer and craft well-composed photographs. I used the 6D until early 2022, when I purchased a new Canon R, which is my current full-frame camera.
About three years ago, I went with some friends to the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary and along the Great River Road north of Alton, Illinois to photograph eagles, and I was hooked on bird/wildlife photography. Today, I go out and take photographs all over the Greater St. Louis Area as well as on vacations where photography is always part of my focus.
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Photography is about being in the moment while you cast all your stress in the world aside as you seek to capture an interesting story during a unique moment in time.
-Rodney Gerdes