“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, working for the Lord and not for men.” (Colossians 3:23)
I received my undergraduate degree in Communications/Photography from the California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton CA. where I studied among other core requirements, black and white photography. After university, I spent several years working on photo projects for my church as well as 10 years in Law Enforcement, photographing diverse crime scenes, that in retrospect, I would just prefer to forget.
With the advent of digital photography and my first digital camera, I was able to pursue the things that interested me the most; abandoned homesteads, churches and cemeteries, big city architecture and the Diary of the Rusty Red Trike…and just about everything else that I tripped over. (Often resulting in skinned knees and a bruised ego.)
I love telling stories, stories that can be happy or sad, thoughtful or sometimes funny. Or not. Stories that make you smile, that are contemplative or stories that provoke a thought, evoke and emotion or perhaps a long-forgotten memory. Stories that yank your chain.
Each of my photos originate from an adventure that has a story to tell. Most adventures are intentional and presumably planned in advance. Others are not. The latter is usually the norm. Those are the best photos. Those are the best stories.
ELLIOT ERWITT, a New York based documentary street photographer once mused that “photography is an art of observation…it has little to do with the things you see but everything to do with the way you see it.” He observed that, “The whole point in taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”
This website is the culmination of many years of shooting, many miles traveled and many accidental adventures. My photos are a visual representation of where I’ve been and the things I’ve seen. I am blessed to be able shoot the things that spark my interest and the things that smack me in the face. (The resulting bloody nose is purely metaphorical.)
Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you think.
Steven B.Charter sbc54@comcast.net