GENESIS
(or Mega Drive, whichever you prefer.)

Seeing as I already have a blog ( http://thegregmafia.blogspot.com) and this space looks kind of ridiculous just sitting here and being blank, I decided to write some art-specific entries here.

Keep in mind I have absolutely no formal training in photography, design or pretty much art in general (I don't think taking two art classes in middle school really counts =/), so if my mantras and techniques seem a bit odd/totally wrong/weird/unconventional, you'll be able to understand.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

CAMERA — For most of my photos, I use a Nikon FM10 camera. It's not the best by any means, but it does the job pretty basically. Although I have a 24mm lens on it at this point, I normally use a nicer 35-70mm lens. I use hand-rolled Tri-X Pan 400 B&W film on all shoots.

Now, you say, what about the times when I've seen digital watermarks on certain images?

Well, bah on you, because I use an Olympus (I think it's a D-350, I'm not really sure) out at Shawnee Heights for assignments there, and use a Kodak DC3400 at work. I don't actually own any digital camera aside from a webcam, and that really doesn't count for anything.

SOFTWARE — Using a negative scanner that's on a G3 Mac at work, I scan into Adobe Photoshop 5.5. Please don't talk to me about PS6, 7, CS, et al. 5.5 is one of the few pieces of software that I am quite...passionate about. And refuse to use other versions. Why, you say? Alpha channeling (and the lack of evil toolbars is also a plus). Although I haven't posted any vector art yet (lost in the HDD crash. yay.), I use Adobe Illustrator 10 for the majority of my needs, mostly because using Freehand MX at Shawnee Heights and the person in my mind who's connected to that program make me want to kick myself in the head repeatedly. And that would be painful, wouldn't it?