photographer spotlight: teddy

i have been following this photographer for a little over 2 1/2 years on flickr. i very much enjoy taking a peek into other peoples lives. teddy has opened the door and shared his family with all of the interweb. with each photo you can just feel the love that he has for his beautiful wife, and his adorable son. the creativity and humor in his work is so inspiring and refreshing. teddy has been kind enough to take a few minutes to stand in the spotlight and answer a few of my burning questions. now let's get down to business...

meet the man of the hour:

1.) what draws you to photography?

That's such a tough question. I suppose there are many
different reasons. It's a creative outlet, I like
observation and telling stories. I think the main reason
I'm drawn to photography is because I like people, a lot. I
like looking at people. Capturing personal moments and
keeping them with me forever. It's like black magic.

2.) do you prefer digital or film? why?

I prefer digital. I've worked in a darkroom before. Sure
it was fun hanging out with other photographers and talking
- but that was all on the university's dime. I just bought
the film and paper. The cost of all the chemicals,
plumbing, space you'd need, a decent enlarger and all the
accessories would far exceed the cost of justifying my
hobby. Still though, before digital took off, my wife and
I found an enlarger and had a room in our basement picked
out for our darkroom. Digital hit big and I never looked
back. The enlarger is collecting dust. The room turned into
a storage room.

My big beef with film is centered around two things. The
first one, is all the cool kids are doing it. It's trendy.
The other part is giving up half of your creative control.
It's like, "Oh I just took some awesome pictures with
(insert technical details regarding a roll of black and
white film). Now - I'm just going to ship this film off to
the photomat!" Hold it right there. The glorified photomat
you're shipping it to probably won't even process it in
true black and white. Also, you should probably give half
credit to Tammy at "Zippy's 24 Hour Photo" for printing the
picture. It was partly her vision too.

It's funny when people post pictures on Flickr taken with
film and tag it "film". It's like, just in case you
couldn't tell it was film.

Perhaps, I'm just a jealous curmudgeon and want to hang
with the cool kids after all. Maybe I'll dig out my Holga
one of these days.

3.) what is your favorite camera to shoot with?

I use a Nikon D70s. I like it a lot. I know the camera
very well and I know what it can and cannot do. It's
comfortable. My Polaroid One Step was a fun camera but we
all know what happened to Polaroid. I liked shooting with
my wife's 35mm Minolta when I was learning photography. It
looked like business to me. Serious photography was
happening with that baby.

I don't think the camera makes much of a difference. People
are always blaming their bad photos (it couldn't possibly be
me!) on gear and equipment. I use an outdated Nikon and a
kit lens. I don't make any excuses for my bad photos.

4.) can you share three favorite photos you took & why you
picked them?

Just three favorite photos? I'm giving you more than three

- This is called hitting your stride. Yes. I'm laying on my
back taking picture while talking to my mom about
depression. I always have a camera at hand. It's not a very
interesting photo but I think I've sold it well to my
audience.

- Nothing creatively or technically special about this photo.
It did introduce me to the Flickr community which was huge
for me.

- I like this photo because I'm really skinny in it. That is
a size small t-shirt I'm wearing. I will probably never
wear a size small again. That is the only reason I'm
including it because I looked great. Photography has a lot
to do with vanity. Just saying.

- I took this with a 35mm Vivitar point and shoot and
processed it with Photoshop. The results were very
pleasing. It also reinforced my love of unconventional
portrait photography.

- I think about this photo a lot. Once again, nothing very
special about it but it captured my imagination and I think
that helps fuel other photographs.

- I've taken a lot of portraits since and this was the
easiest by far because Heather was so graceful. She made it
look effortless. Once again, it's about the model - not the
photographer.

There are thousand of photos on my Flickr stream that I'd
love to talk about. If I put it on Flickr, it's a favorite.
The above is sort of a random sampling of favorites. Wish I
could talk about more of them.

5.) can you name a few photographers that have influenced
your work?

I like Annie Lebowitz a lot. She has a lot of soul and a
good sense of humor. I try to keep that in mind when I'm
taking pictures. People like to laugh. I like all of the
Marilyn Monroe photographers. Maybe I just like Marilyn
Monroe a lot. No one could take a bad photo of Marilyn. As
a photographer, I think the subject is first - make it look
good. My motives come second. I also admire Ansel Adams. His
discipline and technique. Great photography comes with a
price. You gotta sacrifice something to get the shot. It's
not just point and click. I try to keep that in mind.

teddy, thank you for taking the time to let me pick that brain of yours. you can view more of mr. tedfoo's work over on flickr and read his musings on his blog here. like always i want to leave you with a few of my personal favorites. enjoy!