kjatexas' photostream  

I was a commercial photographer for many years. I started assisting in New York City in the 70's. I was fortunate to work for some of the top photographers at the time which included David Langley (people), George Cochran (still life), and Denny Tillman to name a few. This was a great time for print advertising and there were many great photographers in NY at the time.
I dropped out of the photo business for a number of years to pursue another passion, commercial diving, and worked in the oilfields offshore Louisiana, Texas, and Central America. Diving in commercial gear utilizing air or helium/ oxygen mixtures for deep dives, was a great adventure. By the time I stopped working as a diver, the average working depth was 200 feet.
Returned to photography in the 80's, opening a studio in Houston. I was lucky to work on the Shell Oil, Shell Chemical and Dow Chemical accounts while in Houston.
When the print advertising business started to take a downturn, I switched to catalog photography.
During this phase of my career, I basically hired myself out as a freelance photographer to other studios. I was hired to come and shoot in their studios, when they became so overloaded that their staff couldn't handle all the work. I travelled all over the country shooting for different studios for nine years. It was great fun meeting and working with photographers from all over the country.
With the dawn of the digital age, the whole nature of the catalog photography business changed. Most of the existing studios went out of business.
I currently photograph mostly with a Fuji S3pro digital camera and use an Apple G5 to download photos and tweak them in Photoshop. I have two old Calumet 4X5 view cameras that I don't use anymore. I still sometimes photograph with an old, original Nikon F and shoot Velvia but I am getting too lazy to travel back and forth to the lab across town. And I have to wonder how much longer there is even going to be E-6 film and processing available.
It took me a long time to accept the digital age. I initially felt that if I couldn't look at a beautiful transparency on a light box that it wasn't photography anymore. Now, I don't know how I did without digital and the computer.
I have enjoyed looking at the many wonderful photographers on this website. I hope that some of you have enjoyed the work that I have uploaded here.

Please note:
All photographs within this web site are protected under copyright laws and international conventions. No photograph shall be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, displayed, modified, transmitted, licensed, transferred, sold or distributed by any means, without prior written permission from the author. If you are interested in using or buying them, please send me a Flickr-mail.

Favorite YouTube clip:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw2IIU0a9qw

I have seen this so many times and laugh just as hard every time I see it. A comedy classic. Did you recognize Gene Hackman as the blind hermit?

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