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Life Behind the Lens


When I was a little kid growing up in Trinity, North Carolina, I would sit on the front porch and wonder what the world was like beyond my neighborhood.  Surrounded by old cars, failing home structures and loving people, it was there that my imagination began to take shape.  There was an old air field that we would ride past sometimes to get home and I remember wondering what it would be like to see my house from the sky.  Fast forward to now and I stay in the sky and can't see my rooftop at all, lol. 

As I get further a long in my career my friends and family often ask me how do I see the things that I see...  How do I process the images in front of me?  After I clear the air with a joke or two, I pause to give the proper perspective on the question.  I share with them the feelings/emotion of what I see vs the visual side of what I see.  In every environment most of us use all of our senses to survive.  The same goes for capturing important moments in life. You listen, you see, you smell and you feel everything around you.  It's much like sitting on the front porch when I was a kid.  It took for me to sit still to absorb my surroundings.  I guess it's safe to say that I've been in training to do this my entire life.   

Life behind the lens requires a different type of focus.  Every camera has "buttons" but no camera carries the emotion or the ability to capture images.  As we move thru the last quarter of 2012, I want to thank all of you that have supported me throughout this journey. 

Enjoying Life Behind the Lens

-J.J. McQueen-


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