Julia

Award winning member of the Artistic Guild of the Wedding photojournalist Association, Professional Photographers of America and Wedding & Portrait Photographers International 

Our passports are current and we are available for travel, worldwide. 

Please explore my portfolio, slideshows, blog and client galleries to get a true feel for my style and consistency. 

I have always believed that processing is half the art of any photo. It is amazing the difference in mood an image can hold when you learn how to dodge or burn and control contrast in an effort to bring out the essence of the image. The changes that can occur when using different techniques to process film, different chemicals, paper, enlarging filters etc. all have an affect. In the darkroom, I would play and experiment with the tools I had in an effort to achieve a look I wanted. This is why I insist on individually editing every image in photoshop today. I still believe that processing is half the art. I still play, experiment and strive to improve upon achieving the look I want. 

Photography was my first love and has remained my lasting love. I need photography in much the same way that I need air and water. The day I quit shooting is the day I will die. This is not a job, it is who I am. 

For those of you interested in knowing where my training began, I received my first SLR film camera 20 years ago. Within 3 months of this gift, I found myself standing in the darkroom of a small town newspaper with the editor showing me the basics of finding my way around. When he was finished with his tour, he turned to me and said, "sink or swim". I swam. 

I continued working for smaller newspapers over the next 3 years. Always finding myself as the sole photographer with a darkroom all my own. I was in heaven. I was never one of the big guys of photojournalism and hated the major events where I would be competing with 100 other media photographers and their huge intimidating lenses. Problems like this only arose when I had to cover a presidential visit or the absurdity of a KKK rally. I avoided major sporting events but the high school football games taught me to focus faster than the auto focus function of today's most professional cameras. 

I realize it is supposed to be impressive to have photographed the likes of George Bush, which I have. Personally, I am far more proud of the fact that I have photographed Hunter S Thompson. It was much more exciting to hang my body out of an airplane to photograph a sky diver smiling up at the camera in the first few seconds of his jump or to ride in the good year blimp than it was to shoot the president. 

I would spend my days covering a myriad of assignments and then come back to my darkroom to process and print the images to be used for an article the following day. And then I would print the images that I had taken for myself. Usually, these were studies of humanity. The interesting people I would see along the way. The pure character of a random individual. I was honing my skills for my dream job as a National Geographic photographer, where I would travel the world and photograph its people. I also had my secret stash of photos revealing the mayor and other important folk all picking their noses. In an effort to humor myself, I would purposely hunt for those moments during the boring town hall meetings. Im sure they must have known this fact, because they were terribly nice to me! 

I gave up my career dreams for the chance to focus my love and attention on raising my children. As my children grew older, so did my longing for photography. I wanted a darkroom but I did not have the time or space for one. I have never been happy with sending my film to a lab. The images would come back looking flat and lifeless. I needed a darkroom. 

Finally, the digital era! I realized that the computer could be my darkroom and I jumped right in. The film photographers did not believe in the quality of digital yet. They told me I would never achieve gallery quality prints while using digital. They told me the shutter lag would ruin my ability to capture the moments. I told them that digital has given photography back to me. That I am certain technology will improve and I know I will get gallery quality prints in time. I told them that if I have to, I will anticipate the moment right before it happens in order to beat the shutter lag. And thats exactly what I did. 

Technology has improved and it continues to improve. The shutter lag is non existent. The print quality is better than 35 mm film. We even have a choice of fine art papers for printing our digital creations. Once again, I am in heaven.