Committed to art
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:11 AM PDT
Johna Strickland Argus Observer
Ontario
The life of a photographer is not just knowing everything about lights or lenses or cameras.
Ted Davis, 62, Ontario, believes it is also about innovation.
“A professional photographer knows all the options. If you know all the options, it doesn't matter what happens,” Davis said.
Davis, a 10-year veteran professional photographer, knows that life intimately.
It is “something you've got to really think of, and get inside of. A professional photographer always comes back with a shot, no matter what it takes,” Davis said.
Davis said he first learned photography as a child from his older siblings.
“I developed my first roll of film in the bathroom of a trailer house with my brother. It was like ‘you stand there and I'll stand here,'” Davis said.
That was the beginning of a lifelong love affair.
Throughout his military service and farming career, Davis continued to shoot and develop photos.
Over the years, Davis said he began to enter his photographs in the Malheur County Fair. One year, he won best of show. John Estano, former owner of Estano's Photo-Video store, sponsored the award.
“I went to thank him and he said ‘Why don't you come to work for me?' And I did,” Davis said.
Under Estano's guidance, Davis learned more of the technical points of photography. Six years later, he opened Davis Photography in Vale.
“When we first started, ‘course it was all film. Color film we'd send away to the lab,” Davis said.
Because of the simplicity of black and white, Davis developed those prints himself. Color tinting was done by hand on the printed photo, Davis said. Although color is here to stay, Davis said he believes that black and white will never fade away.
“I always say it's the difference between watching TV and reading a book. TV is color, but with a book you have to imagine it,” Davis said.
Before going digital nearly four years ago, Davis said he would have to spend long hours touching up copies of old photographs by hand, tinting black and whites and retouching photos. Today he uses the computer program Adobe Photoshop.
“I liked film, but I like the ease of manipulation of digital,” Davis said.
With a few clicks of a mouse button, Davis can remove the head of a crying baby and replace it with a happy face from an earlier shot. Stray glasses left beside a subject are easily whisked away. These things can be done with film but it's much more difficult, Davis said. The advent of digital has not totally changed photography, Davis said. Lighting remains essential.
“To write with light, that's what photography means. If you don't get the lighting right, you're up the creek without a paddle,” Davis said.
Another thing that hasn't changed is the job of a photographer. It's about getting that perfect picture, with the perfect expression, he said.
“(If you) gotta stand on your head, or tell jokes ... whatever to get that expression,” Davis said.
And then art happens, Davis said.
“You just feel it. All of a sudden you just say, ‘I've got it.'”
