Episode 003: Finding Photography

Show Notes (transcript)

Hey there. Welcome to the Curious Lens podcast.

I'm Matthew Cicanese, and today we're talking about my story of how I found photography.

In the last episode, I shared my story of survival from meningitis when I was only a baby, and some of the things I tried as a kid to discover my own personality. But in hindsight, nothing stuck as strongly as when I found photography.

Growing up in the 90s, my standard camera would typically be a drugstore disposable from a place like Eckerd or Walgreens. My mom and my grandparents always had cameras around, but I thought it was kind of weird that they couldn't just be in the moment. Looking back, I'm very glad to have the memories, though.

Those little drugstore disposable cameras were never anything special to me. It was just an experiment. And I loved to experiment as a kid because I would be watching things on TV where Bill and I would be doing an experiment with science, or naturalists would be going out in the field to explore and experiment with what they saw. And I did these things with the magnifying glass bug net terrariums, but there was never any record of it. I can't draw to save my life, but I'm a really strong observer, and at the time, I wasn't aware that I could translate these observations anywhere but up into my head.

As a kid, I was really into spy toys and other gadgetry.

And when I found my first digital camera at a Walmart, it looked like this reading glasses case. But you pulled the top off and there was a camera beneath a whopping two megapixels, no screen on the back and built in memory.

To be honest, the pictures just sucked. But it was really interesting because it wasn't on film. And as somebody who only had disposable drugstore, cameras or nothing, this was revolutionary.

A couple years later, I got an upgrade. This was a Christmas gift for my uncle when I was only 14, but it was enough to really get me excited. This vivitar silver and blue three megapixel wonder actually had a screen on the back, so the second I pressed the shutter, I could check it on the back and see what I took. It was incredible. This camera took two AA batteries and a fixed lens on the front so it didn't zoom or anything like that.

Now, at this point, I met the end of middle school, entering high school, turning 15/16 and diving deeper into my interests. I knew that I really love science, but I also really loved the arts. In high school, I was on the drum line as a bass player, did pole vaulting and discus in track and field. I even made it to state in swimming and diving as a springboard diver. And with all the classes mixed in chemistry, biology, environmental science, I knew that my interest in science was deepening. But my humanities classes, they excited me, too. Taking classes like Spanish was really inspiring. Learning to speak in another language, translate my thoughts and feelings to art through classes like photography, and even building my first photography portfolio.

This all happened alongside those extracurriculars. And I was also trying to figure out what was next for college.

In 2006, I got yet another upgrade to my camera. The Canon PowerShot SD 1000. A compact camera that fit in your pocket about the size of a deck of cards. And a little lens that extended when you turned the power on. 7.1 megapixels. So twice as many megapixels as the other camera.

A bigger screen on the back for me to experience the pictures I took. Removable memory card, a better lens, and best of all, macro mode. Macro mode was this opportunity that I didn't see coming until it smacked me right in the face. And it happened one day right up the road from my house. I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday because everything is different there now. Instead of this sprawling field next to a forest, it's this slew of apartments. And the place that I know and love has completely transformed. But if we jump back about 15 years, we're on a dirt road near the edge of a forest next to some flowers growing by the road.

Little did I know that when I stopped to look at those flowers and pull my camera out that my life would change forever. I put my bike down, saw these tons of flowers, got on my knees and looked around a little closer. And then I wondered, why the hell does this flower have red stems? I scratched my head, looked around more and noticed the branches were moving. But it wasn't windy. What the heck is happening? The closer I got, the more movement I saw. It was almost like this plant was magic or coming to life. And then I saw it. The biggest ladybug I've ever seen.

And it was stomping around these stems. What is this thing doing? I pulled my camera out, saw the word macro on the back and pressed the button. Suddenly, everything came into focus and I saw a sea of tiny insects, little red aphids, covered every inch of that flower stem in the ladybug it was working on, devouring them one by one, almost like a science fiction movie.

As I picked up my jaw and started clicking away, I couldn't believe what I was watching. Shot after shot after shot, every picture I took was blurry. I thought, what's happening? What did I do wrong? Why am I missing out on capturing this moment? I thought this was the best camera in the world.

I asked myself what else I could do and started to shift my position. It changed the background of the image and let the computer in my camera calculate the lighting better. Some of the images came out, and I'm thrilled to say I've still got them today.

That one ladybug image changed everything for me, because the fact I was able to experience a moment and be present with it and then share that moment with the world through this macro lens just made sense.

So now, 15 years later, I've taken over a half a million images, and they've ended up everywhere from my school paper in college to the cover of World Wildlife Magazine.

This curiosity is an itch that I'll never fully scratch, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

At the end of high school, I had been trained on a Nikon DSLR as a baseball photographer. One of my first jobs. My parents had a Nikon kit, and it gave me the opportunity to use their lenses since they were around. I eventually got a dedicated macro lens, the 90 millimeter one to one by Tamarin, and it opened a completely new world.

These days. I shoot canon. I've used Canon since the beginning of my professional career. Following my academic studies. I'll get into the details some other time, but I'm very happy with the results from the equipment I use and the tech techniques I've developed over the years. At the end of the day, the camera is a paintbrush in your hand. It won't inherently make good pictures. You have to do that through trial and error.

In the next episode, I'll be sharing my influences with you about the people and things that inspire me and excite my curiosity.

Until next time,
stay curious!