Opening Post

July 03, 2008 • Leave a Comment

This is the opening post to my photography blog, johncranephotography. Not sure at all what I'll be doing with it, but it seems like a good idea to finally get it going.

My name is John Crane, and I'm a professional photographer in Colorado. I won't go into a list of professional accomplishments and accolades because honestly there aren't many-I just love to shoot photographs and have since I was young.

It all started with a Christmas gift from my mom and dad back in the early 70's, my first "real" camera, a Canon AT-1.

I walked around Wheaton, Illinois-my home town, and shot roll after roll of film. When I got the photos back they were never what I had in mind. It took years of practice to start being able to capture what my eyes were seeing when I shot a photograph.

I studied art in College at University of Iowa, then at Colorado State University, and went through a photojournalism period at Iowa. I intended to work for National Geographic. Why not, I figured. I loved to travel and loved to shoot-it only seemed natural. I wrote the Geographic back in the late 70's and announced to them my intention. They wrote back and said basically get in line. Most photogs come to them after 10 years with a good photo-oriented newspaper. I tried to picture myself shooting car crashes, political rallies and obituaries for the next 10 years and opted to go another route. With the present state of the newspaper industry it turns out it may have been a good decision.

Today my main focus is nature, landscape, wildlife, outdoor activities, and people. I'm a Christian man, having accepted Jesus Christ as my redeemer & Savior nearly 30 years ago during my freshman year at University of Iowa. That's another story entirely, but it is the core of who I am today, and drives everything I do.

I started my graphics career in 1984 in Chicago going to work for a photo studio in the warehouse district. There I learned the basics of layout, design, studio shooting and whatever else needed to be done. The real story though isn't work. It's where I've had the good fortune to be able to travel to. Since setting foot in Colorado in the mid 70's for the first time-until present day-my love affair with the Rocky Mountain West has grown with each passing year. My back yard has been New Mexico north through the Canadian Rockies, with a few trips to Alaska sprinkled in between.

Before I met my wife I would journal. I guess I had a lot of thoughts bouncing around the cloud in my mind that needed an outlet. Today the blog world has exploded, but I've sat on the sidelines, unsure of things like security, personal privacy, accessability, and all the other things that go along with putting yourself "out there" for others to see. I've finally decided that if one is smart about it, one can mitigate risk and enter a new communication space. So that's what I've done.

What triggered actually taking the step of setting up the blog was when I left feedback at adorama.com about a piece of gear I purchased, then returned. Once submitted they asked if I wanted to add my review to my blog. "Hmmm..." I thought-good idea. So I fired up this space, added the link, and presto-my blog has content.

Being a photographer, this blog will have plenty of pictures, but at the moment I don't have the energy to sort through the details of re-sizing, uploading and layout... so I won't. If you've read this far, congratulations-because I know this hasn't exactly been a riveting opening statement. Just wanted to say hello.

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