I’m Randy Henderson, owner and photographer for Henderson Images, and I feel very fortunate.

When I picked up my first camera in 1972, digital didn’t exist. I started with an Argus twin-lens reflex that my parents owned. You looked through the top, and the image you saw was reversed. After shooting a few pictures, you dropped the film off at Irwin Drug Store in Grangeville, Idaho, and you waited 10 days to see what you had created.

When I went to photo school at the University of Idaho, and later when I studied commercial photography in Spokane, Washington, digital still didn’t exist. Hand developing, printing, and processing was the norm. I spent hours in the darkroom with my hands in smelly chemicals, and spent two years with developer-stained fingernails.

Digital photography has, of course, opened a whole new world. For the first time, I can do things in minutes from my computer that used to take me hours in the darkroom. However, every day that I pick up my digital camera, or open Photoshop, I am grateful for the hours that I spent with those cumbersome old cameras and stinky old darkrooms. That educational base is something that every single photographer ought to have access to.

If there is a downside to the new age of photography, it’s that it has become TOO convenient. Everyone with a camera and a passing interest in photography is suddenly a photographer. If you were to ask any of these folks “What’s the relationship between f-stop and depth of field?”, their eyes would glaze over. One thing that is true with digital that was always true in the old days – if you don’t know your trade, then your “good” photographs are just happy accidents.

Feel free to look around at my body of work. At this point, I work for the pleasure of it, and charge accordingly. If you like what you see, call or email me, and lets talk.

Randy