Gonzalez de Chaves Otaola Victor

While other kids wanted to be firemen and policemen when they grew up, I wanted to be a photographer. That is the earliest memory I have about my interest in photography. Although the interest in photography was there at an early age, growing up in Silicon Valley, specifically Santa Clara, my interests turned to electronics and computers. Not until the late 1990s did my interest in photography get to blossom. I started shooting local bands in dark nightclubs and theaters. Shooting in the pre-digital days meant that learning from your mistakes was costly. Slowing down, attention to the details, composing each and every shot well "in camera", was the way to increase your keeper rate. Those experiences taught me to work with available light and using shallow depth of field to my advantage. In 2003, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of digital. Film is magical, but going digital allowed me to focus more on my shooting and developing my style and spend less time on the processing side. I still applied the same rules to digital as I did with film, trying to do everything "in camera" instead of fixing it in post. I had always found that I had an “eye” for what makes a good photograph, but just thought it came naturally. While taking a photography course to fill in some gaps in my knowledge, the professor asked, “What makes a great photographer?” To his chagrin, I responded, “You either have it or you don’t.” His reaction to my response was less than agreeable. This led me to look deeper into how I capture images. Then I realized that I’ve been taking pictures, without a camera, ever since I was that child who wanted to be a photographer when he grew up. I thought I was alone in this theory until I read that wedding photographer, Joe Buissink, coined the term, “neurochromes.” The act of taking pictures without a camera. Consciously and subconsciously I’ve been composing images in my mind, looking for shapes, lines and evaluating light as long as I can remember. When this part of photography became second nature, I was able to focus on the decisive moment. When Van and I were expecting our first children, I saw it as a great opportunity to document and capture moments from the beginning. During that journey I have had the opportunity, thanks to the wonderful communities we are a part of, to capture others' special moments also. It has been non-stop ever since. Enjoy. John Harvie.