Hello, there. My name is Ben Faber. Thank you for checking out FaberOptics.com and this blog. I have a passion for learning and I intend to use this blog to share some of my personal adventure in learning to capture images–to share some of what I have learned along the way and to share new things that learn as I go (the adventure is far from over). This is my introductory post.
I have been interested in photography since I was a kid. My dad had a Voigtländer 35mm camera and 3 lenses which fascinated me. There were a few occasions on which I was allowed to take the camera with me on field trips. As kids, my siblings and I enjoyed it when Dad set up the slide projector and gave us an opportunity to see images of some of the adventures he had before he had us–adventures that he captured with the Voigtländer.
As an aside, my dad’s B&O (Bang and Olufsen) stereo system and its accompanying McIntosh XR-5 speakers played a role in developing my interest in music and high-fidelity audio. Some fruits of that interest can be seen at FaberAcoustical.com.
In high school, my interest in photography branched into a correlated interest in video. Some time around my junior year, I talked my dad into buying a Sony Hi-8 video camera and a Macintosh Centris 650. With those tools, a VideoSpigot, and an early version of Adobe Premier, I managed to win a video contest with an anti-smoking video, produce a promo video for my hometown (it was for a class project and wasn’t actually used by the city–though it nearly resulted in a contract to produce something more serious…), and create a class video for my high-school graduating class. I think it was sometime after graduation that I had the opportunity to choose exactly how to spend the city’s budget for some new public access video equipment. More amateur films followed…
Although I took a photography class in high school and a film class in college, I ultimately chose to pursue degrees in electrical engineering and physics, instead of photography or film. As a result, my skills as an artist have developed more slowly than they might have otherwise. In the last few years, though, opportunities to develop my talents as a photographer, along with my passion for it, have increased considerably. This website represents my desire and effort to keep that going. I have always enjoyed using both halves of my brain and I fully expect Faber Optics to reflect my passion for the intersection between science and art–between technical understanding and creative expression.
