About Me

My name is Dennis Boyd and I am a Primary Care Paramedic living in the Northwestern part of Ontario Canada in a community called Dryden.

Reasons for this Blog:

I started this blog for several reasons, but the primary one being that I was delving head first into Photography and wanted to share with others my learning experiences along the way.  This blog is a compilation of my journey and will be  updated as my education and experience in such continues.

My intrest in Photography began at a young age watching my parents work their magic on an old Minolta SLR camera.  At the time though, living in a small town and being of high school age… it was something I could not afford to get involved with… until now that is.

My Life and travels:

Over the years I have managed to move around a bit, yet always seemed to return to my roots.  I have lived in several places such as Edmonton and Fort McMurray Alberta, Etobicoke, Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout Ontario yet found that Dryden has always held my heart nearest and thus my return many years ago.

With a career in full swing, spare time was at a minimum for many years.  When I realized that there was more to life than working around the clock I dove headfirst into Motorbikes and Snowmachines, later into renovations, woodworking, welding and landscaping.

Reasons for not getting involved in Photography until now:

Yet after all these years… I still thought that photography was something I could not afford financially, or time wise.  Along came the superstores, buying a roll of film and developing it dropped from around $28 to under $10 and cameras were becoming popular and easier to find.  My intrest was renewed, yet still I held off.  The internet was still in it’s infancy and information on photography was hard to find in our community unless you happened along the right person at the right time.

First foray into Digital Photography:

Next up came the Digital Camera…  which in turn became a blessing for my projects on the internet regarding Emergency Medical Services in Canada.  I had searched high and low during High School for information on EMS and little was to be found for those looking at pursuing it as a career.  I decided at that point I needed to step forth and bring our profession into the modern era and created one of the first EMS web sites in Canada (called NWO Paramedics) … with my first ever digital point and shoot helping along the way.  Yes… Windows 95/98 were the order of the day and for someone that last touched a computer that had a small green screen and dos prompts… the learning curve was steep.

Yet with this I found that the digital point and shoot cameras still did not allow me to capture the photos I desired in EMS and my intrest fell back to the SLR style of camera, yet this time in the digital format.  I continued to take EMS photos here and there, uploading them to my web site when possible…  but it was more of a job than fun at this point.

In November of 2007 I purchased my first D-SLR… a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi.

Since this time I have managed to teach myself a thing or two with respect to Photography, yet realize it is a lifelong learning process.  I am now running my second EMS site called The Canadian Paramedic Web which is the largest online EMS Discussion Forum in Canada and focussing more and more on new techinques of photography with a goal of integrating my skills into EMS and the promotion of our profession as well as the education of the public on who we are and what we do.

Technical vs. Creativeness:

Along with this I have found that despite my technical attitude towards things, Photography has allowed me to experience the creative aspect of life, something that has not been my strong point over the years.   Yes… I am now a technology junky and truly do prefer to read/study and then try things out (and endlessly I might add).

So.. in the past year I have delved into many aspects of Photography that I had never thought possible, and each and every day I find there is something new to learn.

I’ve had the pleasure over the past 2 years of getting out and trying Macro shots, Landscape, Sporting Events and the like.  I’ve also found that during these adventures, one can manipulate the digital photo just like in years gone by (photographs used to be manipulated in the darkroom), except now it can be done right after the shot is taken and placed on the computer.  I’ve also found that I am getting involved more with off camera lighting and it is opening up another whole new world to me.

My goal is to shoot the best possible scene straight out of the camera, yet know that only the methods of creating artful photos has changed from darkroom to digital darkroom… still the same effects, yet achievable by the average user.

New Camera:

In December of 2008 I decided that I would take my photography to the next step and purchased my second camera.  The Canon EOS 50D is my new mainstay, allowing me to shoot in lower light situations, focus faster when speed is involved, capture the scene exposure better and capture larger file sizes to work with for printing purposes.  In March of 2010 I also picked up a Canon EOS 40D to replace my XTi as my backup camera as they are more similar in style and function allowing me to switch easily between the two.

Stay tuned for more adventures as I take on the new Canon EOS 50D and delve even further into this amazing world around me.