Gavin

Tell me a little about yourself? Who are you? What do you do for work, fun?

Hello everyone out there, I’m Gavin, proprietor of neverdrownout….

I was born and raised on the west coast of Michigan, roughly 6-7 miles inland from Lake Michigan in a town called Muskegon. I moved to Chicago in the fall of 2002 to pursue life, leaving behind such fantastic jobs as carpet cleaning and sanitation engineer (janitor) in a very large bakery…

I’ve been paying the bills as a full-time freelance photographer’s assistant and occasional photographer for the last 3+ years after spending a bit more time in dead-end jobs. Photography caught my attention when I was at Michigan State University some time around 1999. I was in the fine arts program already, but clearly not as skilled at drawing/sculpture/etc as many of my classmates were, so I figured I’d give photography a shot.

For fun, I ride and race track and cyclocross with the Half Acre Cycling team and chase squirrels with my greyhound, Blue.

Blue

What was your first camera ever?

My first camera was a Canon Rebel G with a 28-80 lens, purchased for my beginner black&white photography class.

What camera did you use when you started your photoblog?

Canon Digital Rebel

What equipment do you use now?

Bodies:
Canon 5D w/grip and 1Dmk3 DSLRs, Canon EOS A2 35mm SLR that’s collecting dust, and a Bronica SQ-A 6×6cm I’ve run about a dozen rolls through.

Lenses:
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 35 f/1.4, 135 f/2.0, and a cobbled-together tilt/shift lens made with a 75mm medium-format lens, rubber hose, and a Canon body cap.
Bronica 80mm f/2.8

I’ve got a few small flashes, a couple monolights, and some Radio Slaves hanging around too, and sometimes snap stuff with my iPhone.

What is on your wishlist?

So many things! First, I’ll soon be picking up a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens to replace the non-Image Stabilized version I sold late last year.

I’d love to get the Canon 50 f/1.2 and 85 f/1.2, and one of those 200 f/2.0 IS lenses. Maybe a 300 f/2.8 too while I’m dreaming here…

I’ll probably pick up something ‘pocketable’ like the Canon G11 or S90 this year also.

Do you have any formal training in photography? If not, how did you learn and how far do you think you’ve come?

As mentioned earlier, I studied at Michigan State University – had two courses in b&w, one with color film… I also had a semester of independent study (checked out some alternative processes) and I was in the school’s very first digital photography class – I think we used Olympus C-2000 cameras for this, which was state of the art at the time. So I learned a lot about developing and printing from 35mm film and did some 4×5 view camera b&w as well. Digital was in its infancy when I was in school, so the majority of that has been self-taught.

Unfortunately we weren’t offered much of anything in terms of studio lighting or flash, so I learned on- and off-camera flash through trial and error shooting rock and roll. Studio and ‘big light’ lighting I’ve learned through freelance assisting, which has been great because everyone does things differently; exposing me to lots of different lighting gear and styles while getting paid for it.

I’d be lying if i said I hadn’t picked up a few tidbits from strobist.com over the years too!

Has the photoblog helped you grow and learn in your photography?

I think more than anything it’s just exposed me to more photography in general, especially stuff that’s outside the realms of advertising, academia, and photojournalism. Besides that, I feel somewhat obligated to continue doing personal work to post on the blog for anyone who’s been following, and just to keep my eyes and mind sharp and thinking on a fairly regular basis.

Come back on Thursday when Part 2 will be posted.