About

Like many photographers, I started getting serious about taking pictures when I took vacations to interesting places, visiting my in-laws in Italy, hiking the Inca Trail from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, on a three-week trip to Leh and the Ladakh region in northern India, and so on. Eventually I upgraded my point and shoot camera to Fuji mirrorless cameras and started buying toys and taking the occasional photography workshop.

I tried to make time in my day to day life to take pictures. But teaching and writing history, walking my dog, getting exercise, buying groceries, and other day to day duties made it difficult. I’d go months without using any of my growing pile of camera equipment.

In June 2013, I started a 365 project, committing to posting a picture everyday to a website, no matter how banal, hurried, or unsatisfying. I did a Blipfoto website for a while. I posted to a VSCO website. Now the primary place to go for a curated view of my images is my SmugMug site. I also have a YouPic site for recent images.

No Ordinary Light is where I plan to post week to week, sometimes more than that, but at least a couple of pictures a week. Most will be places, people, and things from Grand Rapids, MI, where I live. Others will be from places where I’m traveling–in the past year, for example, Italy, France, upper state New York, southern Ontario, Arizona, Alberta, and Florida. One kind will be “legacy” images, from the near or distant past–images that I still like after a few months or years. The other kind will be from that week, probably my favorite Blipfoto or VSCO post of that week.

[So. I got busy with work for a few years. I did not post much between end the of 2014 and beginning of 2019. I’m clawing back time from work for photography and exercise and meditation. Self-preservation. And in the meantime I bought a new kind of toy. A drone. My basic goal with this site has not changed, five years later . . . .]

My goal with this blog is to think about how my photography is evolving and what, if anything, defines my characteristic images. By No Ordinary Light  I mean that I for the most part I don’t plan to seek out the exotic, in subject matter or lighting conditions, unless it is part of what is ordinary for that day or I’m in an uncharacteristic mood.  I suppose that if I have a philosophy implied in my photography, it amounts to looking for the mundane in what seems exotic and seeing the extraordinary in what seems ordinary and familiar.

It sounds kind of weeny and self-important, but . . . All of my images in this website are copyrighted by me, William Katerberg. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or duplication of content from this site is strictly prohibited unless proper credit is given and a link back to the site is included. Of course, I’m happy to let you use or copy my images, if you ask. Commercial use of any type is prohibited without written permission from William Katerberg and appropriate licensing fees are paid. I’m really hopeful about that, but not holding my breath.

Will Katerberg, February 2014, 2019