↑Gee Dub's blog

For those who care, a little background about myself in relation to my interest in photography.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie. A friend of mine in Junior High School wanted to join the photography club at school, so I joined with him. We would learn about developing film and go on neat field trips to take photos. I borrowed my Mom's Brownie because I didn't own a camera at that time. About as basic a camera as you will ever find. It shot Black and White only. I learned how to use a darkroom and make contact prints. One of my images was used for the school yearbook cover.

For the rest of my years at school and later college I would keep my interest in photography but did not advance much in my photography skills. After college, one of my first jobs was for a lighting company for television and theater. This company also owned the distribution rights to Konica cameras in the United States. I was able to get a pretty good deal on a 35MM rangefinder camera. It was so long ago I do not know it's model. It was a serious upgrade to the Brownie. I took some nice images with it and have a few 8x10's framed that I have hanging on my wall today. I loved the camera but the cost of development and film were too costly for me to pursue anymore than just a passing hobby.

Fast forward though 3 marriages and several other companies and 1 Nikon N2000 SLR camera to 2003 when my wife's brother from Japan bought me a Fujifilm digital camera. First I thought "What can I do with this little toy camera?" I didn't expect very much. Only 3 MP and 3x zoom. I had been into computers since the intel 286 days of DOS. I use a computer everyday. When I brought up the images from that first digital camera, less than 4 years ago, boy was I surprised at the quality. And it cost almost nothing to operate. No film to buy. Not waiting weeks for prints to be made. Plus, with the Internet, someone to share my work with.

I have had different hobbies over the years. But, mostly I was a workaholic. I work for a major studio in Hollywood. I have a marriage that is pretty strong. A son in the Navy and a 4 year old grandson that is just the cutest little guy. But, the photography bug has really gotten into me. I spend all my spare time devoted to photography now. I own several P&S digital cameras and just recently got the Canon EOS 40D with 28-135MM lens.

I hope you will enjoy some of the work I have produced. Your views and comments are what I live for today. A special thanks to all those who have favored any of my images. I know that most of my work is not much better than good. I definitely have more quantity than quality. But there are a few that I think are actually pretty good. I can see that my quality is getting better all the time. This blog here will chart some of that in the months ahead.

Thank you all, who have managed to read all the way to the end of this beginning. I plan on putting up some more docs on my ideas on photography, especially concerning candid street photography in the near future.

Gee Dub

I have created a new album called "Flickr GW Archive". While I like shooting the normal landscapes, floras and other normal subjects, my preferred subject is candid street photography. I am known at Flickr as "Girl Watcher". I created many groups and moderated many others. I had built up quite a portfolio in a little over 2 years as a Pro member.

Over that time I generated over 800,000 views, over 200 images with a minimum 1000 views, and nearly 2000 images were saved as favorites by Flickr members. After I first started posting candid street images I soon found out that a small percentage of viewers strongly objected to my candid street work. Most viewers see it as harmless images depicting people in everyday life. I take images of all people, young, old, male, female, beautiful or obese.

What I found was that viewers preferred to see beautiful women. While the majority of viewers were men, many women were also members. All my images are taken in public and do not violate a persons right to privacy in my country. I live in Hollywood and the way people dress in public is all over the place. From the most conservative business suits to wearing see thru day dresses with string bikinis in mid-town shopping centers. Everybody is trying to out do everyone else. What I am trying to produce is a view of what the people in my city really look like. Not the Hollywood you see in movies or TV.

Flickr has recently put some restrictions on candid street photography. Rather than try to comply to restrictions that vary from day to day, I have decided to remove my images and put them into an archive here at Ipernity. I got tired of worrying that some day enough people from the religious right would complain to FlickrHQ and have my account closed.

I love my candid street images because they are of the everyday people, un-posed, and real. You will see the real people of Hollywood and surrounding cities. Because of the real nature of my images I have made this new album private for friends and family only. You must make me a friend on Ipernity before you can view this new album. Before you ask to be a friend you must not object to this kind of photography and will not complain to Ipernity HQ

Thanks to all my friends both here and at Flickr who have supported my work over the years. This album will allow my friends to see some of my best work, not to mention some of the most beautiful women of the world in a un-posed "real" way.

Gee Dub