Who am I?
I'm Craine, nice to meet you! I am a photographer, scuba diver, and general outdoorsy type human. I live on the central Gulf Coast of Florida and have the incredible privilege of being able to travel quite a bit. I love capturing those moments of awe, curiosity, and beauty I experience and share them with the world (or at least the tiny fraction of it that I can reach).
How did I get here?
Like most 80s and 90s kids I grew up making loads of Polaroids. I still stumble across a few every now and then when I’m back at my parents’ place. My first “formal” attempt at learning something was in a high school photography class. We used black and white film that we developed ourselves in the school’s darkroom. I remember loving the anticipation and feeling of accomplishment as the image started to reveal itself on the paper. Not long after that I started into digital photography with an HP Photosmart C315, with its whopping 2 MP sensor (just look at that quality shot!). At that point I was hooked. I slowly got experience with a variety of point-and-shoot digitals over the next 10 years, upgrading to higher megapixels and zooms when I could afford it.
2009 was when I got my first proper DSLR, a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. Between the kit lens and a telephoto zoom I was able to start digging into the niche of photography that I liked the most, namely nature and wildlife. In 2011 my wife and I became certified scuba divers, and we bought a SeaLife Mini II to take with us on our adventures. This opened up a whole new line of photography for me that I never thought I’d be able to participate in. I stuck with these cameras for a long time
In 2019 I made the jump to a mirrorless camera with the Sony a6400. Sensor tech definitely improved over that 10 year gap, so I began trying out new styles of photography I hadn't before. I also bought a housing to take my iPhone underwater on a dive trip for the first time. The quality over the SeaLife Mini was incredible, and I started falling down the rabbit hole of housings, ports, strobes, and more.
I'm still using the a6400 for now, although I'm eyeing an upgrade to full frame. For now I'll try renting a few bodies, testing them with the types of photography I like, and seeing if the upgrade would be worth it.
