Aaron Schmidt

About Aaron Schmidt

This is the photoblog of me, Aaron Schmidt, Canadian extraordinaire.

I grew up in the suburb of Oakville, Ontario (just south of Toronto) where I spent many a day climbing trees and exploring the world outside. My interest in photography and travel was sparked through a monthly subscription to National Geographic, which brought to vivid life scenes from an unknown world.

I've always been a fan of Helen Keller's philosophy to "never be content to creep when you have the urge to soar". Introvert that I am, I spent most of my adolescence in forests with friends and creativity.

After graduating from the University of Guelph with a degree in Computer Science, I moved down south to Atlanta, Georgia to work for Internet Security Systems. Shortly after, I purchased my first digital camera (a 1.3 MP Sony Cybershot DSC-S30) and got to work taking pictures of anything and everything. Jason Kravitz invited me to play bass guitar for the eclectic, hard-rock band Down to the Shake where eerie sounds glowed from under black lights.

A year and half later, during the rise of Bush, I left America and relocated my life to Paris with the beautiful Aurélie. My day-job involved developing internal web apps for MEGA while my free time was spent building websites under the banner of Freeangle, my personal web design company (circa 2003). The photography continued, as did the music; there's nothing quite like carrying a bass guitar on your back late at night through the winding avenues of Paris.

After three years in France, Aurélie and I set off for the country of New Zealand where we discovered like-minded people with a strong respect for life and adventure. We've been here three years with the hope to stay a little while longer ... being surrounded by sun and sea and rolling hills is a vista hard to abandon.

As for Aminus3, the development began in 2003 as a way for Jason and I to share snapshots of our lives with friends and family. Since then the site has grown to encompass thousands of photographers from over 100 countries. Many lines of code have been written to create and evolve this photoblog platform, but the passion comes from the people who use it and the pictures they post every day.

Accept the things to which fate binds you,
and love the people with whom fate brings you together,
but do so with all your heart.

Marcus Aurelius

Photography Equipment

Canon 20D
Canon 300D (backup)
Lens 1: Canon EFS 17-85mm f4-5.6
Lens 2: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L
Image editing: Photoshop CS4
Image browsing: Google's Picasa 3