![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/f8explorer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023-0913-Ferry-Wheel-HAWK-MT-1219708awa-682x1024.jpg?resize=682%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nAbout the photo … It comes from me simply playing around a bit and experimenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally, I was testing settings on my camera and pointed it towards the talesman and clicked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an image meant to be deleted, yet it survived long enough to be ingested onto the PC where it was later used as a throwaway image that I was using to test new settings and presets in an imaging program I set myself to finally learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turns out that I loved the results when it was all done and so saved the photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reminds me of high iso prints that would come out of some of what I use to out from the old school darkroom setup back in film days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I’m going to be honest, I almost walked away from photography after being a photojournalist for 30 years and a chief photographer at the local daily paper for around 20 of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve won so many awards from the Virginia Press Association that I’ve lost count and even pulled out two “Best in Show” awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet I was ready to set my camera down and walk away from photography for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, the awards were NEVER why I did what I did. Nice, but nothing more than something to go on a resume or on the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was passion that fueled me in the beginning and that pushed me to learn, grow and become the best self as a photographer to a point that I was constantly learning, constantly growing and constantly pushing the edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I even remember the couple years that I felt broken because I’d been laid off from the paper and couldn’t afford to outfit myself with proper gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just knew my career with photos was over the jobs were few in number and with my daughter here in the Shenandoah Valley, I didn’t want to leave. So …. Career over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the joy when a door opened at another paper in the area that allowed me to get my foot back in the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And ultimately ended up back where I started as the photo chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years passed, and although I stayed on top of my game … something became missing.
Still cannot imagine myself without a camera yet …<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fact is towards the latter years, I never took photos for myself … only for work as to hold a camera felt like … well … work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The joy was not so much gone but wrapped up in my job as a photojournalist at that publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I finally left there (downsizing made me the last photographer they’d have before I finally was gone too), I was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Found a way to get a camera and to still work, but there was something … missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yes … I still did photography and journalism gigs, but I still remained lost … and was only taking photos for … work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fun for me has always been in the stories. The stories captured and shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what was missing? … I was still working, still taking photos after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reached a point I seriously almost let go of my camera and all of it as I didn’t want to be someone just going through the motions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also have to admit I missed my co-workers as well and that factored in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, I realized I needed to re-learn to take these photos and share these stories for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not for a publication, but for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, it began with me making a choice to pick up my camera one very, very raining day and head out towards Scottsville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew where to find the batteaux that were floating the James River during the James River Batteaux Festival this past June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They would be passing Hatton Ferry just upriver from Scottsville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love those boats as for a number of years, I served as rear sweep on two of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rain poured down in buckets as I found my perch on the end of the old style ferry and waited … one hour, two … until the boats were sighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I …. FELT … ALIVE!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I recently finished working up those photos as sadly it took a long time to do so as I was still feeling low on my art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although each passing day had me feeling just a bit better until I’ve reached where I am now … Which is ready to move forward once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photographing for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s why I’m looking to switch my brand from “Mike Tripp Media” to “F8explorer” as that’s what I do … explorer and capture stories with a camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m still freelance … sports photography for various colleges as well as stories for publications, both online, print and otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, my priority now is to have fun and not worry about being perfection in all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So often, photographers will only show you what they feel to be among their best work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a trap we fall into as our photos are there for folks to see and those photos lead people towards decisions on if they wish to hire us or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you post only what you feel will help best market your product which is your skill as a photographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That picture at the top of this page that you’ve seen? … It’s not my best work by any means, and if you look at my Instagram page, you’ll not that many photos are simply iPhone photos I’ve captured while out and about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mixed with those, are the meat and potato shots of the job …. but those others are of my simply journey of exploring life on this ball we call Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That photo at the top is also a spark for me as it helped me name a project I’ve been looking to do for some time now and even mentioned here and there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Believing”<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is “Believing” going to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n THAT I will be sharing soon as I’ve already started writing it out as to what it represents in my mind’s eye, my heart and my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just what stories these photos and moments will tell and share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This photo might not seem like much, but for me it represents something deep and meaningful. About the photo … It comes from me simply playing around a bit and experimenting. Originally, I was testing settings on my camera and pointed it towards the talesman and clicked. It was an image meant to be deleted, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artistic","category-photographer-notes"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/f8explorer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023-0913-Ferry-Wheel-HAWK-MT-1219708awa.jpg?fit=1066%2C1600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4880,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions\/4880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f8explorer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/f8explorer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023-0621-Batteaux-at-Hattons-Ferry-MT-1158376a-1024x655.jpg?resize=1024%2C655&ssl=1\")
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