Stevie Ray, photographer at large

Stevie Ray · Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

I have been registered with this great site since June 2008 and figured I should at least post a little something about myself here. I am 38 years old and I live in Huntington Beach, California. I am a California native and grew up in Orange County. I work in the IT field where my official job title is "Solutions Evangelist". My job is to reach out, contact, start and nurture relationships for my company that will then turn into a sale. Average sale for me is around $45,000. It is an okay job I guess but not exactly my life's passion. I am single and do not have any children. When God places the right woman in front of me then I will move forward there. But until then, I am a photographer that can pick up and go anywhere at a moments notice with a camera in hand. I love that!

My true passions besides reaching out to others and sharing the Good News about the gift extended to us by God and working with dogs would be photography. I started taking pictures when I was 15 and stuck with it for a few years. But I soon found drug addiction was foolishly more important than anything else, including my family. After a total of 22 + years of hard drug abuse, I found myself at the end of my rope and reached up to God. He pulled me up and healed my wounds and opened my eyes to the things in life I needed. I ended up with a camera in my hands again and started right where I had left off.

My favorite subjects to photograph would be animals. I have been working with dogs for 24 years doing rescues, training and volunteer work for rescue groups and shelters. For some reason dogs love me and respond with their true personality coming through for me. I like spending the day with dogs and just snapping pictures of them being natural. I have found the best pictures I have taken have been of animals. I have 3 American Eskimos that put up with me sticking a camera in their faces and 2 cats. You will see more pictures coming from me of animals I believe than anything else. I do love taking nature shots and still lifes. But I think the real challenge lies in being attentive, training my eye to capture the moment that defines the character in a dog or cat. Eventually I will start doing this for money but for now it is just for fun and to keep me busy.

Lastly, I just want to say that the reason I have chosen this site is not only because of how well it is run but also because of the other photographers that are on here. I see certain ones a lot and love their work. TJRusso seems to have a very good eye for catching a great shot. Also, I notice that there are not "abusive" comments on here like other sites I have been on. I think it is important to help people and be kind in giving them a review of their work. It is better to build up than it is to tear down I feel. I look forward to posting more pictures on here in contests and seeing the work coming from others. My record so far on this site is 50/50. I have entered 8 contests and have placed in 4 of them in the top 3 with one 1st place win. Not too bad. Thank you for reading this and I would love to hear from others on here. If you have any ideas or tips that may help me out then please don't be shy. I'd love the advice! May God bless your work and keep the creative nature you have alive and plentiful. Let's all strive to produce good fruit with the gift we have and share it with others.

Stevie Ray[/b]