Member of the Month

Sydney Harter is a kindergarten teacher in Bakersfield, California who considers herself lucky to be able to combine photography with her job. This hobby has deep roots in her life starting with her dad who never left the house without a camera. As a kid Sydney remembers Saturday nights on the couch with her family viewing his images on a slideshow. Although her dad gave Sydney and her sister cameras to take pictures of friends and trips, it was only when digital came around that she got ‘the bug’. She likes the fact she can see her images instantly and learn right away what is working (or not)! Although Sydney has made a little money off photography, it’s the need to document her life that drives her. She sees photography as a way to slow down and marvel at Christ’s creation.

: A docent at The Louvre in Paris gets to the best part of the story.

: A self-portrait submitted to National Geographic’s YourShot assignment.

: A costume contest at the Kern County Fair in Bakersfield, California. This contestant was dressed as The Man with the Yellow Hat.

: About 2 miles east of our farm there is a little rise with a great view.

: Although we don’t have children, my husband and I love our cats. I was attracted to how the woman on the TV screen ‘interacted’ with the scene.

: Our cat proudly stands in front of his ‘trophy’.

: Discovering a prism of my dad’s, I held it in front of a picture I’d taken of my 90 year-old mom and then snapped a new picture. It really seemed to exemplify the complex responsibility of caring for elderly family members.

: In winter, lizards are slow to move. After discovering one under a dried leaf, I gently put it on top and held it to the light—suddenly I realized what a great silhouette it cast!

: Sometimes it seems like there is nothing to photograph. But boredom leads to ‘play’ which led to this motion blurred image of our Labrador in her kennel.

: Every spring, a bee-keeper puts his 30 hives in our empty horse corral. During the first few days, the bees congregate in the water bowl, acclimating to their new habitat and ferrying the water back to their hives for climate control.

: My mom going down the stairs of our childhood home which has been in the family for 55 years. It feels like she is fading away.

: Botany is my mom’s passion and she seemed to wield her hose like a wand as she doted on her plants.

Currently retired, I began my career teaching Spanish and French to high school students. Following a brief stint in education, I owned a high tech recruiting and consulting business in Dallas. Selling the business and retiring after 20 years, I first volunteered for and then served the community in a paid capacity for The Family Place, recruiting volunteers and soliciting in-kind donations for victims of domestic violence. In 2017, after returning to executive recruiting for 4 years, I entered my second and final retirement.

That year, my husband and I began our Vagabond Life. After selling our home and possessions, we began pursuing an active traveling life in the Americas and Europe. This prompted me to retire my old Nikon DSLR and, upon the advice of Peter at DCP, purchased a Sony A6500 mirrorless camera to use in our travels. I have used this camera to document adventures in our blog, ourvagabondlife.org, a hobby I pursue to help my family and friends keep up with us. Prior to 2017 and participating in two DSLR camera workshops at DCP, I had only used my Nikon on auto. Now, I love carrying my camera, buying new lenses, trying new angles, and keeping up visually with our life on the move.

The Vagabond Life photos are an effort to bring together the sights and spirits of the adventure of living without permanent roots. They document monuments, sights, markets, friendships, and general daily living. I hope this hobby will preserve the memories of our travels for the next phase of our life together.

View more of Karen’s work on Instagram.

: Sampling prepared mole in the historic Mercado Medellin in Mexico City. Our guide was the chef who would teach us to make our own mole later that day. I snapped this with an iPhone after making the terrible mistake of not having my camera card inserted.

: Peppers in another market. I loved the colors and textures, all the same variety but each one unique.

: The Ballet Folklorico, al fresco, at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City. I had first seen the Ballet when I was 22. Forty+ years later it remains a beautiful show. The movement, the costumes, the music and the night combined for this shot.

: Ancient Roman aqueduct, outside of Obidos, Portugal. We saw many aqueducts on our travels through Spain and Portugal. I love the symmetry and amazing functionality, as some are still in use today.

: We spent New Year’s Eve 2019 in Quito, Ecuador. Their celebration includes people dressing up in costumes, the burning of effigies, bands, parades and more fireworks than we have ever seen before. Ran into this guy in his Johnny Depp-like pirate attire on the street.

: Moas (shrines paying homage to the dead) at sunrise on Easter Island. These hand-carved figures representing ancestors face inward from the ocean as protection.

: Caught my husband’s profile among the busts in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen. I took so many serious shots of serious art that I love the contrast in this fun photo.

: Caught this shot as the tall ships came to Oslo for the Tall Ships Festival 2019. I was looking up and saw the giant ferris wheel in contrast with the mast of this tall ship from Brazil.

: Moscow has hundreds of beautiful churches and onion domes. It also had plenty of rain when we visited. I liked the contrast of the metallic surfaces with the dark clouds.

: This lovely dahlia lives in a garden in Port Ludlow, WA on the Kitsap Peninsula. From our America the Beautiful adventures, with our grandson and children, not pictured!

: Popocateptl, an active volcano, stands guard over Puebla. Evocative of the living earth at all times of the day, I especially loved watching the sunset volcano from our Airbnb rooftop.

: In our last journey out of the states prior to the pandemic, the final city we visited was Oaxaca, MX. Colorful folklife surrounded us. This photo was taken on the street as we joined in a festival celebrating high school graduates of the region.

Paul Sokal grew up in Buffalo, NY. In middle school he received an enlarger for his birthday and built a darkroom in his basement. While his friends were up to no good, he was playing under the safe light. After attending medical school, he moved to Dallas in 1978 to do a residency in internal medicine. He stayed in his newly adopted home, practicing for 42 years before retiring at the end of 2019.

If you aren’t a full-time professional photographer, how do you support your photography habit?
I shot weddings for about five years and used that income to support my gear acquisition syndrome, but then I decided I couldn’t be a wedding photographer and a doctor at the same time. At that point I chose to focus on fine art photography, whatever that is. I used my office as a gallery and began to sell prints.

Where did you learn about photography and how do you continue to grow?
My photography life was inspired by my father whose work took him all over the world, always with a camera. I have had no formal photography education and have learned mostly through shooting, trial and error. In middle school I spent a lot of time in the darkroom I built in my basement. I would buy 100 ft rolls of 35mm Tri-X and roll my own so I could shoot to my heart’s content. More recently I have participated in some targeted workshops and of course learn from the Internet.

When did you start taking pictures?
I shot my first photographs around age six but my real start was at age eleven when my family spent the summer touring Europe.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie and my first “real” camera, a Voigtländer 35mm. I am now a Fuji lover and I shoot with an XT-3 for family and travel, and GFX 100 and 50R medium format for fine art work.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
In 2011 I committed to going big and began shooting digital medium format and acquired a large format printer. I have been fortunate to sell a number of large prints, participate in several exhibitions, and have my work included in two museum collections. When I retired from medicine at the end of 2019, my intent was to focus on photography full-time, but the pandemic has derailed many of my plans. I’ve been using the time to develop new photography skills and experiment in my small home studio, with the hope of increasing sales in 2021.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
The camera has always been a tool for me to explore my environment. I identify with Ansel Adams’ description of photography as an analytic art. Shooting is an opportunity to step outside your surroundings and observe the world in an independent and personal way. But as so much of landscape photography has been commoditized by the Internet, my focus is now turning more towards conceptual projects. My most recent, 21 November, is part of an exhibit, Art Reframes History, at the Sixth Floor Museum through April 4, 2021.

View more of Paul’s work on his website.

: Trinity Sunrise – I first saw this image driving to West Dallas across the old Hampton St. bridge. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera. I returned every weekend and finally, on the fifth try, the temperature and humidity were just right again.

: Dallas Shifted – I shot this in 2008 using a Nikkor tilt-shift lens. Fortunately, back then there weren’t as many residents downtown so the sidewalks were empty.

: Calatrava+Sky – I used to live in a high-rise overlooking the Calatrava designed bridge and our balcony was the perfect place to shoot a series of photographs of the bridge against the ever-changing sky. This was one of my favorites.

: Lightening – While living in a high-rise downtown, I experienced the most intense thunderstorm I had ever witnessed. I had left my tripod in our garage, 13 floors down. Assuming I wouldn’t have time to retrieve it, I shot this handheld bracing against the balcony railing. Turns out the storm raged for a good 30 minutes.

: Arts District Bird – I love shooting in the Dallas Arts District and this bird posed perfectly for me.

: JFK Memorial – I used to offer money for anyone who could identify this object but never had to pay up. This was a thirty second exposure shooting straight up in one of the entries to the JFK Memorial in Downtown Dallas.

: Texaco – This shot from Marfa reminds me of images from the early and mid-twentieth century. I was struck by the way the light wrapped around the tank.

: Onion – This onion was on a shelf by a kitchen window when it sprouted and just kept growing. The window light gave it a three-dimensional quality and the Zeiss Otus lens I used revealed exquisite detail. My homage to Edward Weston.

: The Republic – The old Republic Bank tower is my favorite building in Dallas. With this shot the light, reflections, shadows, and geometry all came together.

: Downtown Light – I enjoy walking downtown and exploring the light. Shooting this cross street in the late afternoon sun with a telephoto lens compressed the three buildings and the play of light and shadow showed off the detail in their different styles.

: Marfa – The morning we were to leave Marfa on my last trip there we finally got this amazing light. Then mother nature got out her brush and painted these incredible clouds in the sky. It’s good to be a photographer.

: Walking down Main Street past the Neiman Marcus windows, and the hands just aligned. Right place at the right time.

Constance Jaeggi has always had a fascination with horses which in part stems from her interest in the essential role they played in the development of modern civilizations. At the heart of the relationship between horses and humans is a large paradox. At once a tool in conquests and war because of their tremendous power and capacity for speed, they remain a herd and prey animal. Through photography both inside and outside of the studio, Constance explores the duality of these flighty yet mighty animals, as well as their relationships with humans, particularly women whose livelihoods still depend on these animals. Over the past year, she has been documenting Camilla Naprous of the Devil’s Horsemen with her film cameras. The Devil’s Horsemen is a leading supplier of horses and stunt men and women in the film industry and Camilla is a second generation horse master and leads the company.

Constance splits her time between Texas and the UK where she is currently finishing the documentary photography project as well as completing her masters in Art History.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
I first picked up a “proper” camera in 2013. My mother gifted me a Canon 70D for my college graduation. As I got more serious about my photography and doing it professionally, I switched to a Canon 5D SR and the Hasselblad 907x which is what I use when shooting horses in the studio. I eventually taught myself to use film, and today my real love is for my film cameras, and the time they allow me to spend in the darkroom! I switch between my Hasselblad 503cw and my Mamiya 6 (both medium, square format cameras), my Contax 645 and my Rollei35.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
I sell prints from my first project of studio portraits of horses called “Aspects of Power, Light and Motion” which was the subject of a solo exhibition at the National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth. I’m hoping to have more exhibitions of some of my more recent work shot on film of the Devil’s Horsemen and am also working with a book editor on making my first book! So stay tuned!

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
There’s no better feeling to me than working with my camera. When shooting, I am completely absorbed in the present moment and focused on my subject and the story I am telling. Photography gives me purpose and is also a tool to communicate my passions and the stories that fascinate me. Horses have always been a huge part of that and therefore have a presence in most of my work.

View more of Constance’s work on Instagram.

: The Ratpack – Three young quarter horse stallions fighting, shot in my makeshift horse studio in Weatherford, TX.

: Arabesque – Portrait of a young quarter horse stallion, shot in my makeshift studio in Weatherford, TX.

: Helios – Portrait of an Andalusian stallion in my makeshift studio at the Devil’s Horsemen headquarters, in Buckinghamshire, England. This stallion has starred on the big screen in Game of Thrones and Star Wars.

: Horsemaster – Horsemaster Camilla Naprous trains one of her horses at The Devil’s Horsemen in Buckinghamshire, England. The Devil’s Horsemen is a leading supplier of horses and stunt men and women in the film industry, based in the United Kingdom. Camilla is a second-generation horsemaster and leads the company. Shot on film.

: Backwards Dive – British stunt woman and trick rider Karis McKabe during training. Karis has performed stunts for the first two Wonder Woman films amongst others. Shot on film.

: Trick Riders 1 – Stunt women and trick riders Karis and Colette train together as they prepare for an upcoming film. Despite government restrictions and many businesses being completely halted in the UK, the film industry has started to pick up again and some productions are able to go forward. Physical training, both on and off horses, is an important part of these stunt women’s daily routines. Shot on film.

: Trick Riders 2 – Stunt women and trick riders Karis and Colette assist each other during training. Due to the dangerous nature of this sport and the unpredictable factor of the horse, this training is rarely done alone. These women train together, spotting and adjusting each other during stunts and offering feedback on performance. Shot on film.

: Snowdonia – Four Friesian stallions become one with the landscape. Shot on film in Snowdonia, Wales whilst on set.

: New shoes – Horse shoer puts a new pair of shoes on one of the Devil’s Horsemen horses. Over the past year, I have been documenting the daily activities of the Devil’s horsemen with my film cameras. During the government imposed lockdowns in the UK, businesses across the country were forced to shutdown, countless people lost their jobs and many lost their lives. But the activities at the farm continued because horses must still be cared for, fed and exercised.

: Untitled – Over the past year I have been documenting the daily activities of the Devil’s horsemen with my film cameras. Despite government imposed lockdowns, the activities at the farm continued because horses must still be cared for, fed and exercised. Here, horses are being rigged up for driving. The horses at the Devil’s Horsemen perform a variety of jobs from stunts, to driving, to teaching actors to ride.

: Untitled – Horsemaster Camilla Naprous and stallion Vendeval take a cigarette break in between takes.

: Untitled – Groom and stuntman Robert cares for and washes Gaspar after a sweaty exercise session on one of the milder British winter days.

Jim Bird was born and raised in Fort Worth, TX. During his youth, he traveled the country and worked in the screen printing industry making t-shirts, Willie Nelson for President bandanas, circuit boards and signs. Jim settled in Garland, TX and started a successful commercial paint contracting company that grew and thrived for 30 years. A few years before selling his company in 2014 and retiring, he started entering the local On My Own Time competitions with shots he’d taken with his Minolta film camera. Winning several blue ribbons, Jim decided to make the leap to digital and has been improving his art since then.

If you aren’t a full time professional photographer, how do you support your photography habit?
During my working years, I had the good fortune of being able to invest and save enough to support this not so inexpensive hobby.

When did you start taking pictures?
I didn’t really take my first steps into serious photography work until my retirement years, around 2014. I’ve always had artistic interests and photography really filled the need for me.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
Initially, I started with a Minolta film camera but when I transitioned to digital my first one was a Nikon D90. I’m currently shooting with a full frame Nikon D750 but still enjoy shooting with my D90 as well.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
I’ve been given a few small monetary awards in competitions and some sporadic payments but not anything that would be considered an income. The majority of my work is for non-profits such as my church, our local symphony orchestra and local fundraising events. I plan to continue shooting as long as I’m able to do so.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
Photography fills the need to create on a personal level. My creative work includes street, still life and studio work, which is still evolving. Shooting for non-profits gives me the sense of doing something with purpose and value in my retirement years.

View more of Jim’s work on Instagram.

: Taken at Broken Bow Lake, OK. As an avid angler and photographer, it’s a struggle for me since the best time of day for both fishing and photography is in the early morning and late afternoon. I’m torn between the two since I can’t do both at the same time. One wins out and the other is neglected.

: This was an early, foggy morning shot. Searching for different perspectives, I captured it from a bridge over Rowlett Creek. I’m always trying to find shots from a different angle.

: This was a construction site of a Catholic church in my community. After 30 years in the construction business, I still had a hard hat in my truck and was able to walk right into the site without any resistance. It allowed me to capture these two gentlemen as they worked on the roof.

: I was asked to capture individual shots of the staff of my church. The request was please shoot them as they perform their work for the church, not “the usual mug shots”. This individual is the Associate Director of Music Ministry as he plays the piano.

: This parakeet was photographed at White Rock and submitted to White Rock Lake Conservancy for a calendar competition. It was selected as a feature in one of the months. Money raised from these calendar sales go to enhancement and safety projects for the lake.

: This shot was captured at Ridin’ High Cowboy church in east Texas. This cowboy was also the church’s pastor.

: I was given a gift certificate to Dallas Center for Photography and used it to take an all-day class. This photo was taken during the class that was instructed by Peter Poulides. This was my introduction to DCP.

: I captured this while shooting for the White Rock calendar even though this would not satisfy their preference of color or landscape orientation. I still thought it was a great image for my personal collection.

: This is a lesson in always having your camera with you. I caught this out of the corner of my eye while crossing Ray Hubbard Lake, on the way to the grocery store. I dropped the grocery list, made a U-turn and stopped and asked the pastor if I could shoot some images. His only response was if I would share them with him.

: This photo is special to me because it’s my granddaughter, her husband, their son and my first great-grandson. At the time of this photo, he was 5 days old. It reminds me of the importance of having printed images as well as digital. I still like to look at old photos of my loved ones.

: This was taken at the traveling Vietnam Healing Wall when it stopped in Garland. This gentlemen appears to have a personal connection to the wall, its memories and/or some of the names on the wall.

: Prior to the pandemic, I’d not had much practice with still life. The pandemic gave me an opportunity to explore it. When I shared this image publicly, I posted this Aristotle quote: “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light”.

Jim Pollock was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to a Dad that was an engineer for the Manhattan Project and a Mom that cared for all as a nurse. He defected to Boston for an engineering degree at MIT and worked at Hewlett-Packard before getting the startup bug with 8 early stage companies since. He just started his latest in June by licensing a patent from the University of Colorado where he has been an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for several years working with faculty to commercialize their science.

If you aren’t a full time professional photographer, how do you support your photography habit?
Photography has always been a side passion. I’m fortunate to have real life support for my addiction.

When did you start taking pictures?
After I graduated from college, I took a job with Hewlett-Packard and immediately flew to Palo Alto for 2 weeks of training. One of my new fellow HP workmates took me hiking in Yosemite Valley for the weekend and we hiked to the top of Half Dome. Right then I knew that my life was going to be filled with interesting adventures and I needed a camera to capture them. I picked up a Canon AE-1 in 1977 and thus started the addiction.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
I had a Kodak instamatic for my last couple of years in college and captured some of the usual antics of living with my fraternity bro’s. But I never even thought of it as photography or a hobby. Just took snapshots. It was after my trip to Yosemite that I knew I needed to get more into photography as a necessary companion for my travels and love of the outdoors. The Canon AE-1 was my first camera. I substituted a fixed 35mm lens for the stock 50mm as someone told me “you’ll like a wider angle lens if you do a lot of outdoor shooting.” Currently I have a Canon 6D Mark II, but I have to say that each year I have become more dependent on my iPhone camera as it is always in my pocket and rivals the quality of the DSLR. I also have recently added a ZWO 2600 color CMOS camera dedicated to astrophotography. It has built-in cooling to -20°C to keep the noise down for exposures of 5 minutes and more of really dim stuff!

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
Nope. All for the joy and sharing.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
It has evolved over the years. I have always gravitated towards outdoor imagery of where I’ve hiked or biked, people in my life, and astrophotography. This last year with COVID-19 has changed my style to staying home centric, not traveling and not being around people other than my wife and dad-in-law who lives with us. I’ve ended up doing more with my telescope and camera. The astrophotography is fascinating as it combines two passions: astronomy and photography. There is much beauty to be found in what would appear otherwise as nothingness. I just love the concept of poking a camera into an unknown closet and pushing the trigger and seeing something magical and unknowable appearing – which is my analogy to astrophotography. One of my favorite images and least impressive aesthetically is a picture of a quasar. It looks exactly like… a star. Except that it is 2.4 billion light years away. The very few photons that landed on my camera started their journey 2.4 billion years ago to end their life on my camera chip. Kind of humbling. Maybe I should have stayed out of the way and let it continue its journey!

View more of Jim’s work on Instagram.

: Me at 2 years old by my dad | When my dad passed away, all his Kodachromes were neatly stored in carousels chronologically. He was a snapshot family photographer. Rarely a scenic shot unless a family member was in it. Always shot landscape format, never turned the camera. Easter, summer vacation, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, then repeat… for 50 years. All are precious for documenting our family’s lives but occasionally he nailed the lighting and the intimacy like a pro.

: Dad | A shot of my dad the weekend I bought my first digital camera, The Nikon E990. My friend, Peter Poulides, had always preached to lose the flash and use whatever light happened to be there. This shot was just a couple of years before my Dad passed away at 85. I love the picture. But my Mom hates it! “He looks too serious and sad”. My Dad had this habit of never looking at a camera taking his picture, and he looked right at me when I snapped this.

: Baling Hay at Sunset | My wife and I moved to a farm just north of Boulder in 2015 where “we do our own hay”. Lots of opportunity for light and patterns of grass and bales at every phase of haying. A small curve in the field turns into gorgeous wavy patterns of cut grass, then windrows, and finally bales. Throw in a backlit dusty baler and you can have some fun. Apple iPhone X

: M51 Whirlpool Galaxy | Always love to mix hobbies and in this case, photography and astronomy. This is the Whirlpool Galaxy. Two galaxies that have collided and passed through each other several times over the last couple billion years. Artistry in (slow) motion! My 11” diameter telescope is effectively a 2000mm f/7 lens attached to my Canon 6D. 43 frames of 30 seconds each, “stacked” with software as the equivalent of a single 22 minute long exposure. The 22 minutes of photons left that galaxy 22 million years ago to land on my sensor. Guess I was pretty lucky.

: Totality 2017 | One of great astronomical experiences of my life was to finally witness a total eclipse 62 years into my life. Drove from Denver onto a long, straight, lonely county road that was dead in the center of the eclipse path. My expectations were extremely high and were exceeded by the experience. I had a Canon 6D with a rented Canon 400mm telephoto riding on my 11” telescope. The scope was for live visual, the camera was on autopilot bracketing multiple exposures continuously. I set it on auto, pushed start and swore I would not check until the event was over. Being the geek that I am, I didn’t want to spend the 8 minutes of totality troubleshooting an intervalometer!

: M42 The Great Orion Nebula | On a clear, dark winter night, if you look at the middle star of Orion’s belt, you might see that it looks a touch fuzzy. It’s actually one of the brightest and most spectacular nebulae in our sky. Only 1500 light years away, it covers 4 times the apparent width of the full moon. It’s huge! The little hot white spot in the lower is a present day star factory. The spot is 4 stars called the Trapezium which are slowing sucking the red hydrogen and blue oxygen into themselves and growing. In 100,000 years they will be teenager stars and the nebula we see now will have disappeared. Canon 6D with Celestron 11” Telescope, 25 minutes of exposure (110 frames of 15sec).

: 1954 Ford Tractor | When we bought our farm, it came with a few old Ford and John Deere implements including this 1954 tractor with a 6-volt battery that still works great. They don’t make them like they used to. We still use this tractor to pull a massive iron grid (a harrow) along the ground to breakup horse and cow manure at the start of the spring growing season. The most fun you can have at 3 mph.

: Hay to Market, Bamako Mali | They say “Vacation in Belgium? Meh! Travel to Africa? Adventure!!” I had 3 trips to sub-Saharan Africa while working for an ag-tech company. I was at a workshop in Mali the day the coop started in 2013. I was able to sneak out slumped in the back seat of a taxi and was on the last plane that took off for over a month. But, while I was there, I was amazed at the wonderful people and quiet while still bustling life just outside the capital, Bamako. The few roads (and fewer paved ones) are shared equally by occasional cars, lots of motorcycles, donkeys, carts, bicycles and walkers.

: Great Sand Dunes in Colorado | Who knew? That you could find a Sahara-like spot in the middle of Colorado. A unique alignment of mountains and wind patterns have created this fantastical scene of ever changing sands. Using the technique inspired by Georgia O’Keefe to zoom close into a subject… the character is changed by not knowing the boundary conditions which provide the context of the image.

: Lone Elephant | Massai Mara, Kenya From a business trip to Africa. My penchant for big scenes with a lone distant object. Puts a giant elephant into perspective of where she lives.

: Fall Biking thru Aspen | My staged “Fall biking in Colorado” photo. I took my bike group up a great converted railway track up to the Continental Divide above Breckenridge, hoping for a shot of one of our bikers, alone. A perfect representation of the emotion of the day. However, on that weekend, they also allowed cars up the road. We sent Rachel down the road every time it got clear only to have a car appear at one end or the other before we could get the shot. Finally, we had a clear shot, and our bike gang stood in the road to block cars from behind us. Sent Rachel scurrying. And hoped no-one would appear from the far end. And got the shot!

: The Sailors of Dubai | On a trip to Dubai, I was stunned by the incredible array of massively tall buildings rising out of the sand. But I was soon numb from the cold structures and people in air conditioned Mercedes. Someone described Dubai as “like Las Vegas without a soul”. (Las Vegas has a soul?) Fortunately, I blundered into the old original dock area that seems to be unchanged by progress, still vibrant with wooden ships bringing goods from China and sending them back out all along the African coast. These veteran sailors are taking a break before heading out to ports down the coast. All had stories they were more than willing to share about their encounters with Somali Pirates.

KC Frost lives in Dallas with her husband, daughter and two dogs. Her professional background is in HR and recruiting. She currently helps connect companies with young talent at Southern Methodist University as the Assistant Director for Employer Relations in the Cox School of Business Career Center.

Where did you learn about photography and how do you continue to grow?
I like to support my photography habit with private tutoring and taking a few classes throughout the year. I also enjoy printing books of our pictures from our trips and a year in the review. Creating these books always makes me want to shoot more.

When did you start taking pictures?
I grew up watching my dad document big events in my life with his Canon Rebel camera and having the pictures printed. At some point later in elementary school I remember asking to use his camera and the rest is history.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
My first camera was my dad’s Canon film SLR. I currently shoot with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
No, I only shoot for my personal collection.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
I have very few memories or pictures from my early childhood and treasure the photos I have with my late parents. Ever since having my daughter, I find myself wanting to document the moments that are so special to me to share with her one day. There are many moments when I see a scene and think to myself this would make a great picture. Shooting helps me slow down and be completely present in the moment.

: This image was taken at 4 in the morning two days after giving birth. I had just gone to the bathroom in our hospital room and walked back to my husband taking this picture of our daughter. I quickly grabbed my phone and captured this moment.

: My daughter is about to enter the terrible twos and this moment captures her big emotions. My husband is in the background feeding one of our two dogs and she is holding on to the cup of dog food for our second dog.

: My husband traveled nearly every week for work prior to March 2020. Since COVID entered our lives he has been working from home and has built an incredible bond with our daughter. I have fallen even more in love with him watching him as a father and I love to photograph their relationship. Here, she is helping him with yard duties.

: I was sitting on the floor of my daughter’s room waiting for a moment to capture. She loves to play with her sound machine and when I saw her little hand reach out from behind the chair I clicked the button. Photography has been teaching me many lessons of patience, especially throughout the year 2020.

: Another picture documenting the relationship between my husband and daughter. I love capturing their playful relationship and her curiosity. I shot this photo for a 4-week class series that I took at DCP this summer focused on capturing life at home. For this particular photo, I was concentrating on how the light hit both of them.

: Photographing dogs and capturing who they are is not as easy as it sounds. This is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken of our dog Rosie. This is her favorite spot on the corner of our bed to rest yet still be able to watch over the yard.

: I recently finished a documentary photography workshop led by Kirsten Lewis. This is a photo I took for an assignment on capturing emotion. For me this photo captures not only a moment between my daughter and husband but also a strong sense of trust. I waited until I saw my daughter look up at him to snap the shutter.

: I lived in Sydney, Australia for 3 months in 2018. Every week I would take a bus to the Iceberg Pool at Bondi Beach for swim lessons. I am drawn to the mood in this picture. The dark clouds and the lights shining through as the waves crash in to the pool. It’s rare to see the pool so empty during the summer.

: During my time in Australia, my husband and I traveled to Uluru in the middle of the country. We rode camels and learned about the rich history of the Aboriginal people in this area. I didn’t realize how tall camels are until I rode one and the shadows represent how high I felt.

: A couple months into COVID I realized that spending so much time at home together would be our new norm. I have used my camera as a way to be an observer in my own home. Capturing our mundane life has filled me with joy and made me both grateful and keenly aware of the simple things in life that we took for granted.

: Our daughter had a 15 second head start running into our bathroom. We found her climbing on her train to reach forbidden sink items. My favorite part of this picture is her standing on her tippy toes and how relaxed my husband looks.

: During our time in Australia we traveled to Lady Elliot Island for 4 nights. This off the grid island is surrounded by coral reefs and home to 4 different types of turtles. Each morning, we went snorkeling right outside our cabin with the turtles. This picture was taken with a GoPro.

Christine Cluff currently resides in Old East Dallas and spent time living in New York City (where she was born) and spent over five years living abroad in England. She supports a private equity team in her current role at a finance firm, coordinating and executing administrative functions, and strategic initiatives. Christine spent most of her career as a marketing professional in the architecture and design industry. While in New York, she worked at the International Center of Photography, supporting the One-Year Certificate and MFA Programs and Penumbra Foundation, where she applied her experience to help cultivate its brand and growth.

If you aren’t a full-time professional photographer, how do you support your photography habit?
I feel lucky to have a company that supports work/life balance and allows me the flexibility to enjoy my passion for fine art photography and travel.

When did you start taking pictures?
I don’t really have a unique story. Photography began as a hobby following an interest in the arts (drawing, painting, writing). In my early twenties, I attended an introduction to black and white film photography and darkroom class. I will never forget how it felt the first time I saw one of my images develop. This is where my lifelong passion for photography began.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
My first camera was a Minolta SR-T 101 that had belonged to my father. My current cameras are a Canon 6D for digital, a Hasselblad 500cm and Standard 4×5 view camera for analog.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
I have done some paid work for wedding, portraiture, and lifestyle projects in the past. I have also sold a few of my prints. I am currently working on a website to showcase my work and having limited prints available for sale.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
I am an introvert, and the medium of photography is a way for me to visually contemplate ideas around connection, identity, memory, presence, and experience. Most of the time, the photographs I am producing reflect the state of mind I am in or help me work through something internal. I think in many ways, photography, for me, is a form of meditation. When I am shooting, it changes the way I see or notice things, and I have more profound engagement with my surroundings. Of course, photography is also capturing a moment in time, a place, or something beautiful I want to remember – for the pure joy of it!

View more of Christine’s work on Instagram.

: We All Become Stories. This image is part of a series of self-portraits I have been exploring and was taken during a stay in Vinalhaven, a town located on the larger of the two Fox Islands about 10-miles off the coast of Maine.

: Untitled, Self-Portrait. I began making a set of images at home during a workshop earlier this year with Madeleine Morlet, just after entering into quarantine. The ultimate takeaway was how constraints create freedom, and planning can help encourage creativity.

: Untitled, Self-Portrait – This image is part of a series of self-portraits I have been exploring taken in Camden, Maine.

: Still Life of Peonies. I recently started exploring still life photography. I make these images using natural window light in my small studio room at home. With these images, I share my sense of wonder at the beauty of flowers, interacting with their delicate architecture. It fosters a deep respect for the miraculous ways of nature. I always save a few and press them in pages of my art books or carry them in a locket to preserve the emotion I felt while creating them.

: Still Life of a White Rose. More from my exploration into still life photography.

: The Mirror Doesn’t Lie. This image is part of a series of self-portraits I have been exploring and was taken in an old schoolhouse in Rockport, Maine.

: Floral Memento Mori. A slightly different take on my other still life photographs.

: Untitled, Self-Portrait. Another image from the series I made at home during a workshop earlier this year with Madeleine Morlet, just after entering into quarantine. The ultimate takeaway was how constraints create freedom, and planning can help encourage creativity.

: Untitled. One more image from the series I made at home during a workshop earlier this year with Madeleine Morlet, just after entering into quarantine. The ultimate takeaway was how constraints create freedom, and planning can help encourage creativity.

: Untitled, Self-Portrait. This image is part of a series of self-portraits I have been exploring taken in Vinalhaven, Maine.

: Untitled. From the series I made at home during a workshop earlier this year with Madeleine Morlet, just after entering into quarantine. The ultimate takeaway was how constraints create freedom, and planning can help encourage creativity.

: Untitled, Self-Portrait. One more image from the series I made at home during a workshop earlier this year with Madeleine Morlet, just after entering into quarantine. The ultimate takeaway was how constraints create freedom, and planning can help encourage creativity.

Originally from Maine, Michael Girard currently lives in the Dallas area. He retired from the US Navy after 24 years of service and continues to serve in a defense contractor role supporting the Navy. He always enjoyed photography but only seriously pursued it as a hobby beginning in 2014. Michael enjoys exploring abandoned places and photographing them after dark. He likes the relaxed feeling of waiting three or four minutes to capture one image and the peaceful surroundings these places usually offer. He also enjoys shooting landscapes and city lights.

How do you support your photography habit?
Retired from the Navy, I have a military pension and currently work full-time in the defense industry.

When did you start taking pictures?
I’ve always liked taking pictures but never realized that there were “rules” involved. A Navy photographer taught me the rule of thirds in the late 90’s, and that was the only rule I was aware of until another friend taught me the exposure triangle and how to use my Nikon D3100 in manual mode in 2011. I took my first class with DCP (then Spot Studio) in 2014. That was when I really started taking it seriously.

What was your first camera? Current camera?
I’ve had multiple cameras over the years, but I started taking it more seriously when I got my Nikon D3100. I upgraded to the D7100 shortly after which I still use today. I still want to make one more upgrade, but I’ll wait until I know for sure because that should be my last camera.

Have you ever made money from your photos? Is it something you plan to continue?
I’ve sold a few prints here and there, mostly to friends at work. I had planned to attend a couple of art fairs this year to check out how photographers sell their prints with plans to try that out next year. Eventually I plan to build a website but not for a couple more years. I may also start contributing to a stock site.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
Now that I have a few years of practice, I’m usually able to capture what I intended to capture. But every once in a while, I’ll get an image that seems to look better than the scene I was shooting. It’s hard to describe but I look forward to those magical captures even though they don’t happen too often.

View more of Michael’s work on Instagram.

: Multistrobe Futuro – With multiple exposures and some help from photoshop, I achieved the desired result of each window being lit a different color.

: Red Wood – Recipe for this image: A dead tree in Lake Ray Hubbard, a red colored flashlight, a bright moon, an aircraft in the holding pattern, and let it set about three minutes.

: Forgotten Fill-Ups – A long abandoned chalet-style gas station along Route 66 in Texola, Oklahoma on the Texas / Oklahoma border.

: Contrabando Adobe Noche – This adobe structure is the only one remaining from the Contrabando movie set along the Rio Grande in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

: Dallas Pyramids – Walking from one planned composition to the next while taking some night shots in downtown Dallas, I looked to my left and saw this. It turned out to be my best shot of the night!

: Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge – This is another unplanned shot that I took walking back to my truck after completing a planned shot of this bridge from further along the levee.

: Special Delivery – I don’t know this van’s story but I bet it’s a good one. It is abandoned near the Chinati Mountains not far from the Mexican border.

: Rock House – The clouds make this shot. Ironically these same clouds kept the moon mostly hidden making me work hard to get the scene lit with a flashlight.

: Last Lap – A young go-kart racer comes into turn three with a nice sunset in the background.

: Truck Stop – The best sunsets I’ve seen are in west Texas. Sometimes it seems the entire sky is lit orange. This sunset is framed by the canopy of a long abandoned truck stop.

Connie Carr is based in Dallas and travels frequently in her role as a national account manager for an Italian company. She enjoys the hectic travel aspect of her career, feeling lucky to visit so many places and enjoy local culture. To balance that busy schedule, Connie appreciates spending quiet, meditative time in nature for photography. By observing the lines, structure, and rhythm in nature and adding artistic camera techniques, she hopes to capture a little bit of nature’s magic in her fine art images.

If you aren’t a full-time professional photographer, how do you support your photography habit?
My job allows me a great deal of flexibility to enjoy photography. Even though my photography work is “part time”, it is growing into a full-time profession.

When did you start taking pictures?
Technically, I was four years old. My first photo, which I still have, was of white ducks and a bridge. My mom thought I was wasting film. I remember thinking I was creating a masterpiece! The more real answer is 17, when I was editor of the high school yearbook. I wasn’t a fan of the photos that had been submitted for consideration, so I borrowed the principal’s 35mm camera. I had no idea what I was doing, so he taped the wheels and buttons of the camera in place and told me not to move them. It worked! I got my shots!

What was your first camera? Current camera?
Kodak Instamatic? First “real” camera was a Canon AE1. My current systems are Nikon and Fuji.

Have you ever made money from your photos? If so, is it something you plan to continue?
Yes, I have done dance, sports, portrait, product and lifestyle shoots for many clients. My focus going forward is very different. I’m focused on nature photography with final images intended for print, either for a wall or to be included in a photo book.

What motivates you to pick up your camera? How do you feel when you’re shooting?
I actually stopped shooting two years ago. Most of my work at that time was product and lifestyle photography for corporate clients and it wasn’t fun for me anymore. It was probably more about burnout, but I needed a break so I stopped. A year into that pause, I very randomly decided to join a group of photographers on a trip to the Palouse area of Washington state during the harvest season. I had never shot landscapes before and I really don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to go on that trip. But I went and was awestruck with the jaw dropping scenery in that area of the country. The calmness, serenity and enjoyment of photography returned to me during that trip. Fast forward to today and I continue to focus on nature photography.

View more of Connie’s work on her website or Instagram.

: I shot this in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and it will always be one of my favorite images, because I love sitting on a beach, watching and listening to the waves. Also, because this is the first image that I ever entered into a photography competition. It placed third in its category, out of more than seventy entries. I was thrilled!

: This image was made during my trip to the Palouse area of Washington state in the midst of fall harvest season. Standing on a small country road, we were completely surrounded by rolling wheat fields and fluffy cherub clouds. The lone grouping of trees is the only thing that broke the line the sight line for miles.

: The view from the vantage point of Steptoe Butte State Park near Colfax, Washington is one not to be missed. The colors of the rolling fields of farmland seemed to shift and change in the light. At dusk, I was very excited to capture that last kiss of sunset as it cast highlights across the tops of the mounds.

: Caddo Lake is a magical, near mythical, natural lake and bayou in east Texas. The shallow lake has hundreds, if not thousands, of giant cypress trees covered in Spanish moss both along the shore and in the water swamps. Wanting to capture the trees’ reflections in the water, so I was there at sunrise, hoping for few boaters and still waters. I got my wish with a lake surface that looked like glass.

: The wind was blowing while I was trying to shoot my neighbor’s bird of paradise plant. Rather than giving up on getting a perfectly in-focus shot, I decided to embrace the plant’s movement and try an abstract look. The movement gave the image an overall softness that I think works well in this abstract look.

: I’ve tried to become more observant of lines, structure, and colors of nature. My neighbor’s plants offered great examples of those qualities.

: This shot is of a small section of a large coleus shrub. It’s one of those plants that you can easily walk past and not really notice the details of the leaves, but once you do notice, you don’t forget. The leaves seem to dance around one another and create a lovely natural rhythm.

: Lagniappe is that little something extra and that’s exactly what I got with the little green frog. During the early morning hours and under the shadow of several trees, the water garden was very dark. So dark, I didn’t immediately notice the frog! I’m very grateful he was there and that he remained quite still for several minutes.

: At first glance, this may look like a typical water lily floating on water. It’s actually an American lotus and the stem reaches about three feet above the water. The telephoto lens compressed the background leaf to appear a bit closer than it actually was, but it works nicely as a background for the blossom.

: I enjoy macro flower photography, but I couldn’t get quite that close to this lotus since it was several feet into the pond. Using a telephoto lens and then cropping a bit, I got this detail image of a lotus petal.

: I was mesmerized with the many layers and details in this water garden. Where to focus? The flower, the buds, the oversized leaves? When the wind blew, the large leaves would rise and fall, the flowers would sway, and the scene would constantly change. I stayed two hours photographing and simply enjoying this special place.

: I used different techniques to capture this abstract image of a koi pond. I combined a slow shutter speed with a small intentional camera movement while the fish swam around. It took several attempts and each image was certainly different. This one has three different koi swimming through the frame.

Born in Saskatchewan, raised in North Dakota and Montana. I started messing around with photography early on, shooting black and white film with a Kodak Instamatic and learning to process my own film in the bathroom, which in turn I converted into a makeshift darkroom. When I was about 14 my older brother who was in the service during the Vietnam war finished up his tour of duty and decided to take a trip to Europe for several months. He shipped all his belongings home and spent the next several months abroad. All his stuff was stored in the basement of our house and I just started digging through boxes where I found two 35mm cameras, a Walz Envoy 35 which was a knockoff of a Leica Rangefinder and a Minolta SRT 101 single lens reflex. I appropriated both, and was on my way to a career in photography.

I attended Montana State University and received a degree in Film and Television. While going to school, I was photo-editor of both the Yearbook and the newspaper, and worked summers for a portrait studio and held a second job as a Ranger for the Forest Service. At the ripe old age of 21, I started my first photo studio with a close friend and we began shooting advertising work for DANA Corp, Sharp’s Firearms and Big Sky Ski Resorts to name a few. The major bonus of this was never having to pay to ski (Awesome)!

In 1980, I moved to Dallas and began working at a large commercial photo studio, where I shot annual reports, catalogs and advertising for a varied clientele. After a few years working as a shooter, I moved on to running the studio portion of the business as well as shooting. In 1985, I started Anderson Studio and have had three different studio locations over the years. Currently, I specialize in people, fashion and oddly enough, motorsports. To those who know me and my penchant for Hotrods, not too surprising.

In 2005, I purchased a building and built a 5000 sq. ft. live work studio situation that has drive-in access for shooting cars and other large sets. Currently married to professional make-up artist, Paige Anderson, we shoot together when we can and we sometimes still speak to each other. Check it out at www.andersonstudio.com.

: The Miller Light Dragster leaves the starting line in the finals of the 2001 US Nationals. Larry Dixon was the driver and won the race, the biggest drag race of the year. One of those pictures where the light and everything came together.

: The driver at the top of the photograph is Eric Medlin and his team before a race. Eric was killed in a racing accident in 2007. Great driver and person, as well as a friend.