It was during High School that I find remember developing an interest in photography. My first outlet was the yearbook with which I continued through college.

One bit of nostalgia I feel for those days was the excitement of picking up a roll of developed film. That anticipation to see if that great shot you saw in your head translated into reality.

All too often the bulk of my efforts were a disappointment, which I do feel improved somewhat when I got into a darkroom for the first time. Still in those days of film and limited budgets my growth was slow.

I was midway through my active phase of parenting that I purchased my first digital camera. In stead of hoping for the best combination of light and exposure and composition, I could experiment.

With the immediate feedback I could better understand the impact of my choices and make adjustments on the fly. The only cost of a bad image was the time it took to delete it.

As my skills improved , so too did my desire to share these images. With time I found other parents making room for the “guy with the nice camera” at various school events and before long was the de facto dance, sports and drama photographer.

I started by sharing my photographs over social media, but became frustrated with the lack of control I had over these images I was taking - especially of other peoples children.

In many senses it was a lifetime ago that I published by first website in 2015, Meadow View Photography. It was a cookie-cutter web hosting service that did satisfy my need for control but I quick got bored with lack of creative options.

My web presence was becoming a creative outlet in its own right. When high speed internet became a viable option in 2020, I made the next most logical jump in my web experience - self hosting.

At this point I can laugh at how much I struggled to understand and implement of home web server. Thanks to a number of books and LOTS of Youtube videos. I was able to get my own simple server up and running.

In this second phase I relied on a content management system, Joomla, to do the work behind the scenes. While it did simplify the process I was still boxed in relying of a “universe” created by others.

My next leap came when we moved to Kentucky in 2022, and I had the space to move from repurposed hardware to building my own server. Again growth was not without some pain for this was a different skill set required

Thanks again to a number of book, websites and many Youtube videos, I now have what I would consider to be a modestly sophisticated home lab set up with a couple of dozen servers for various purposes.

A this point I also took a step back to the basic building blocks of web development and started to learn HTML, CSS and Javascript. This is a part of the journey that will continue, hopefully, well into the future.

It was at this stage that All Things Knitter was introduced to the net. As I learn more and am able to dissect the works of others, I am trying to incorporate more interesting elements into my design. Hence my current version 6.0

At this point I feel that the media has become an equal partner to the images. I believe it is a very human impulse to try to create. I am lucky that my focus is simply to be able to do something I enjoy from my time with my camera in hand to what and how I get to share with the world.

When I have asked myself what has drawn me to photography, it is without question the ability that a photography has to capture a moment in time. Perhaps it is a quirk of how my brain is constructed, but even with almost 200,000 images in my personal collection if you show me a picture it will trigger a memory and a story.

As I hope to make progress working through these images, I know they will bring me a sense of happiness and contentment. My greatest hope is that it will do the same for all the family and friends that visit……Enjoy!!!

David S Knitter