I came up with the concept for Visual Sensory about a year or two ago because it describes what I look to accomplish with my photography. Guy Tal said it best in his recent post about “Photography and the Creative Life“:
The purpose of art is to say: “Here’s what you would not have seen had I not shown it to you, even if you were standing next to me.”
The primary goal I seek to fulfill with my art is to fulfill your visual senses by showing you our world through my eyes.
It has taken me awhile to actually begin publishing my work under this identity partly because I couldn’t decide if I wanted my website to include my name or not, as if it truly matters in the grand scheme of things. Other well known photographers such as Trey Ratcliff goes by “Stuck In Customs” but Chase Jarvis simply goes by his own name. Wait up a second now, I don’t have a clever catch phrase like “Stuck In Customs”, coreythompson.com is already taken, I don’t have enough money to get the owner of that domain to sell it to me, and coreythompsonphotography.com is way too long of a domain name to be using. OH NO!!! Now what??? Stop the presses! This throws a monkey wrench into everything! What in the world is a confused photographer to do? Does anyone even use monkey wrenches anymore? If by now you’re thinking I’m nuts, you’re absolutely right. Finally, with the help and encouragement of some very amazing friends and a wonderful wife, I finally decided to go forward with the use of Visual Sensory.
Who Am I?
Now who the heck am I anyways? That’s a darn good question. If you didn’t catch on in the previous paragraph then you probably haven’t been paying much attention, I don’t blame you one bit, I’m Corey Thompson. I currently live in Orange County, California, which sadly doesn’t have oranges anymore (hello tract housing and McMansions). I recently got married to my sweetheart, Brisa, and we are expecting a baby girl this August (who will get recruited to be my little photo assistant when she’s older). When I’m not out shooting photos, I can probably be found wrenching on my 1965 Mustang, which is scheduled to be running at some point in this lifetime. I used to spend my time after work surfing but now I prefer to shoot photos at the beach instead.
How Did I Get Here?
I never had the luxury of enrolling in a photographic learning institution, therefore I’m 100% self taught. In fact, I come from a tech background. I have a Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems and work full time as a Business Systems Analyst. If you have formal photographic education, props to you because I’ve gone about all of this the long and hard way. I’m not in any possible way trying to suggest that I’m done learning though. I don’t believe I will ever be done learning.
The good thing is, I’m a very hands on learner, which is what made the self taught route even possible in the first place. I scavenger every source of information I possibly can and then go out and try it. My first digital camera was an Olympus C50 Zoom. We’re talking back in the day when a basic point and shoot camera still came with advanced creative modes like Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority.
It all started when I was at the beach one evening trying to photograph the pier with lamp posts on. I put the dial on night mode and snapped away. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why my photos were all blurry. Soon after that I learned all about the exposure triangle. That is when it all started coming together for me.
What Do I Photograph?
I primarily shoot landscape and urban photography. Lately I’ve been working on seascapes. If I see a cool looking architectural structure, I won’t hesitate to capture an interesting angle on it. I’m fascinated by all genres of photography.
My Gear
For all the techies out there, I shoot with a Canon 40D. I plan on upgrading to the new Canon 5D Mark III later this year. I love prime lenses. I honestly believe that there is no better bang for the buck than a good prime. The quality of photos that a prime lens can capture is worth the inconvenience of having to swap lenses. In addition to my primes, I also use a wide angle 10-22mm lens and an assortment of filters.
What To Expect
As I get situated here, I plan on publishing a new post at least once a week and will post more frequently as I work this into my routine. In the future, you can expect to see the latest photos I’ve shot, the techniques I’ve used to capture them, and anything else relevant to photography. If the work that I do comes to inspire you and encourage you to explore your creativity, then I will have succeeded in what I do.
Legal Junk (aka Free Wallpapers)
Most of my photos are available under a creative commons license with attribution. In non-lawyer mumble jumble, that means I won’t sue you if you download my photos and use them as your wallpaper, or post my photos to your blog with a link back to the originating source of the photo (such as my website, Flickr, etc). If you’d like to use any of my photographs commercially, please contact me at corey@visualsensory.com.
Your comments, questions, or feedback are always welcome, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for reading my informal introduction (because formal just sounds too serious). Well, that’s all folks. See you next time.
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