About Me
I am a very creative person, no doubt. I enjoy discussions about art, as well as technology and the sciences. I am a subscribe to the philosophy of ‘Homo Universalis’. I have a lot of interests, I enjoy exploring all of them, and I have a strong desire to continue to explore new things.
I am a techie. I have a Master’s degree in Information Technology Management from George Washington University. I have a VPN connection to my home network. I enjoy gadgets, computers, and the Internet. I will admit, I have a love affair with Apple products, not because Apple is a brand name or icon, but because of everything that Apple products have brought into my life since I became a ‘switcher’ in 2001. Technology, and the arts play a major role in my life. I manage my own domains, install my own servers, setup databases, and write my own OO PHP code. My techie skills and art skills are what I used to build this site, and its content. I launched this website June, 2010.
I have a lot of experience in photography as well. I graduated from George Mason University with a dual major in fine art and foreign languages. I actually prefer to read literature in Spanish. I concentrate on the visual arts, namely, photography and painting. Photography tends to be my passion that is a break from all of the technology. I enjoy getting out into nature, which also provides a lot of opportunity for nature photography. Many of my photographs that are not contracted are of nature. Nonetheless, I will take on projects such as weddings, events, portraits, and more. I do have professional printing equipment, archival inks, papers, and do my own matting. I make books of the weddings I shoot, but I also enjoy making coffee table books of the trips and places I have been.
With the remaining time I enjoy working on home improvement projects, and oil painting. My health is important to me so I workout regularly. I often do day trips and I enjoy travel. As for the other activities, I enjoy the standard fair, including spending time friends and family.
To find out more about my professional life, you can find me on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgriggs). I also have a page on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/chrisgriggsphoto which is dedicated to photography. Of course, I also have this website here which also focuses on photography.
Photographer
I am a photographer in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. I prefer natural light photography, although I do have basic studio equipment. I do not have a studio, but I have mobile equipment to establish a studio on location. I do not have Photoshop and I do not perform heavy editing. I am open to more creative editing of photographs, but I do prefer more basic, true-to-life photographs. In my photographs, I use existing light, and do basic adjustment with the photographs such as color balance, dodge, burn, crop, etc., which are just some of the basic techniques to bring out the desired image. I do sometimes use the basic tools to be more creative, either through simple black and white conversion, color enhancement, or the like. I will do touch-up work as well.
As an undergraduate student of photography my original works are film. In 2008 I swapped my film camera for a professional digital SLR. My work has been fairly limited since 2008, but I have picked up the pace since June 2010, when I completed this website. I have learned a a lot since that June, and plan to continue to learn as much as possible about digital medium. Unfortunately, all of my original photographs, negatives, and positives, do not translate well at all from film to digital media so I do not have any of my older work on this site. I will have to try to retrieve that work again, perhaps when technology has improved.
My photographic style is more photo-journalistic for the most part. I enjoy the raw natural look to life and people. The moment is more interesting to me often then the composition or technical perfection, although I work to achieve all three. My other work, which is more art photography, tends to be experimentation with dramatic light and textures. I have an odd fascination with deterioration so I do seek out those subjects. However, I do enjoy other subjects, and of course, nature photography.
IT Professional
I am an IT professional. I have been working in information technology since 1996. As with my personal life, I enjoy creating and building things in my professional life. What I create in my professional life is software products, preferably Web-based, websites or software solutions. What inspires me most about creating software products is idea sharing. I enjoy taking on challenges and finding solutions. There is an opportunity to use my analytical mind. Building software is like creating a work of art. In either situation, practical or not, we take an idea from our head and turn it into something real.
‘Homo Universalis’ philosophy has guided my career development. I did not want to just take a role in creating a product at a single level. I wanted to be well rounded, and have practical real experience at every level. I have direct experience at every level of the software development lifecycle. I have worked as a network administrator, a network engineer, a systems support engineer, a software quality engineer, a business requirements analyst, and most recently in my favorite role as product manager. I have a knack for digging down, understanding the product, and being able to see a future and direction. True to any work of art, there is a strategy and a direction to completion. The experience, skills, and understanding I have of product development make me efficient, capable of communicating across all teams, and the knowledge to take a product from concept to market.
Check out my profile on LinkedIn.