Greg Liverman's Photography Page

Photography has been a passion of mine since I was a teenager. I started shooting 8mm film, 16mm film and then moved to 35mm stills. My first professional job was as a photographer and reporter for KPRC-TV Channel 2 (Big Two News!) in Houston in the 1970's. Ray Miller was my first boss and continues to be the yardstick by which I judge managers, leaders and bosses. He once told me, "Shoot all the film you want, it's the cheap. Just don't come back without the picture." He gave me a camera, all the film I could shoot, a company car and turned me loose on the streets of Houston to report the news. What a job! I quit when my wife objected to me getting shot at when I ran through the door right behind the cops.

I learned that light meters were for sissies - someone who couldn't judge the exposure by eye wasn't a real photographer. Hell, you didn't have time to check the light - you had to shoot it or you'd miss the action and face Ray's wrath for not getting a better shot than the other channels. I learned to edit film to tell the story under the pressure of a deadline. And how to simultaneously read a map, eat a Whataburger, talk on the radio, listen to cop chatter and drive to a story at 80 mph down Navigation in the middle of the night. Thankfully, no one was killed.

My first real still camera was a Nikon FE. I love that camera. I use the light meter to help gauge the light (the eyes are getting older!), but still shoot it on manual.

I purchased my first digital camera (Canon S230 Elph) in 2002 and I've had loads of fun with it! I moved up to a Nikon D100 digital SLR a year later and I have used that almost exclusively since. I've got several Nikon lenses from the '70's and '80's that produce gorgeous pictures on this new digital body. I still keep the little S230 with me when I travel because it is so doggone portable!

Photo Galleries

You can find all my pictures here: http://www.pbase.com/liverman

pBase.com is a very popular photo hosting site. They charge a nominal amount. You have a lot of freedom in designing the layout and uploading is a breeze.

You can protect your galleries in various ways on pBase. One way is to simply hide the url. pBase also allows you to password protect your galleries

What I'm Learning about Digital Photography

Here's what I'm learning about digital photography. If I treat the CCD (the little gizmo that captures photons and forms the image) as a new kind of film with some different properties (sensitivity, color balance, etc.) the rest of the process is pretty much identical to a normal film camera. For example, the focus and exposure mechanisms of the Canon S230 (Ixus V3 for those in Europe or Asia) are pretty darn similar to my little point 'n' shoot Olympus Stylus film camera. The "digital film" causes a little bit longer shot-to-shot delay than the "regular film", for example, because it has to write the data to the memory card. With my Nikon D100 this kind of difference is pretty small, however.

I really love my digital SLR. After a few thousand frames, I feel as comfortable shooting the D100 as the FE.

I am still looking for more exposure latitude and better grain from the digital film. I know that science will have to do more to catch up with my expectations - I am a 25- and 64-ASA Kodachrome bigot ;-)

Shooting the little Elph poses some unique challenges, so I've captured what I've learned here: Canon S230 Elph (Ixus V3) Frequently Asked Questions

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