Howdy, my name is James Langford. I’m 31 years old, and I live in Garland, Texas (near Dallas). I’m been married to my wife Karen for 5 years. We have two wonderful daughters named Ellen and Emily. I moved down to Texas from Montana in 1998 after graduating from college to work for Nortel, a telecommunications company. I am still there today, and work primarily as a Software Developer and Technical Project Manager. In my spare time I love to shoot photography, and I consider myself a semi-professional who is always looking to learn new things. I focus primarily on Fine Art Landscapes, but I also shoot Weddings and Portraits on the side.

I don’t have any formal training in photography. Everything I have learned has come from forums on the internet (like dgrin.com and dpreview.com), and from my own experimentation. I like to try and push the limits of my camera, and shoot things others aren’t often shooting (thunderstorms, star trails, infrared, etc).

In 2002 I started participating in the Sony Talk forum on dpreview.com. Shortly thereafter, I purchased my first camera; a Sony F707. I immediately fell in love with digital photography and dove in head first to learning everything I could about it. I found early on that I liked to photograph things that weren’t shot much, and I liked to push my camera. This led me to start shooting the awesome thunderstorms that roll through Texas, and also to experiment with Infrared. Five years and two cameras later, I still have a strong passion for learning new things about photography and for shooting unique landscape photographs.

Currently:

• Canon 30D with grip
• Canon 10D with grip (Backup)
• Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 prime lens
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 prime lens
• Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens w/ hood
• 2x Canon 580EX flash
• Promaster Manual Flash
• 3x Lumiquest Softbox
• Canon TC-80N3 Remote Control
• Canon ST-E2 Wireless Flash Trigger
• Hoya HMC 72mm Circular Polarizer
• Hoya R72 58mm Infrared Filter
• B+W 58mm 10 stop ND Filter
• Hoya 72 to 58 step down ring
• Slik 500DX Pro Tripod
• 2x light stands for flashes
• Stroboframe Camera Flip
• Sony F707 with Remote
• HP Laptop
• Various batteries and flash cards
• Kodak full and compact Gray Cards
• Micro fiber cloth and lens pen
• Lowepro Compu-Trek camera bag to hold everything

On the Horizon:

• Canon 1ds Mark III
• Canon 17-40L f/4.0 lens

My passion is definitely shooting Fine Art Landscape photographs. My family and I love to travel around the country, and I take every opportunity I can to photograph the places we visit. We frequently travel to Montana, and I try to get out and shoot as much as I can while we are there. My favorite time to shoot is the 20 minutes or so of magic time around sunrise and sunset. I love how the light can explode into a scene, and how as a photographer you have to be ready to capture it before it is gone. You never know what kind of challenges and beauty a landscape is going to present until it happens. Being able to capture that scene and share it with others is why I love photography.

I have always been inspired by the cool folks who have helped me to learn on both dgrin.com and the Sony Talk Forum on dpreview.com. Specifically, Shay Stephens really inspired me with the way he could make his camera do things that didn’t seem possible to me at the time. His images, and the way he would explain all the details in how he created them were a huge help to me early on as I was learning. They also motivated me to try new and different things with my camera, and to not be afraid of using the Manual mode.

I have been with Smugmug since 2004. I was immediately attracted to Smugmug due to ability to completely customize my sites interface, as well as set my own pricing structure for my prints. Previous to being at Smugmug, I was doing all of my own printing and order processing. Having Smugmug take care of this for me was a huge load off of my shoulders and allowed me to focus more time on my photography.

Smugmug has allowed me to greatly increase the visibility and improve the presentation of my photography. Because there is so much flexibility in site design, I am able to professionally present my work to others, as well as sell prints easily to those who are interested.

Get out there and shoot! When you are shooting, don’t be afraid to take a ton of pictures of your subject. This will help you to find out what works and what doesn’t. Often times, I will take 100s of pictures on a given day, and may only end up with a few that are keepers.