My name is Chris. I reside in the upper midwest section of the US. I am a photographer and earn 100% of my income doing what I enjoy. In the past, for various reasons, I neglected immersing myself in Flickr. Moving forward, I plan to grow my presence on this very public image portal. My presence on Flicker will include some commercial imagery and just a lot personal “fun stuff”.

I prefer to divide my images into a number of categories, with a few showcase images presented on my “Flickr biography page”, to illustrate those categories. The first is simply called “Faces”, featuring environmental portraits, and individuals in workplace environments. The second category, “Places”, features primarily architecture, both structural and environmental, and the final category is “Things”, a niche’ segment featuring photographing products at a clients’ facility. Usually these clients can’t (due to size/weight), or don’t want to transport a product to a studio, so I go to them. I do photograph scenics, but I’m not a landscape shooter, and I love photographing family scenarios. I also like to shoot a lot with my iPhone. Who doesn’t like to shoot with a smart phone? I’m sure there are 000’s of sites that cater to Android/iPhone imagery. Don’t care what kind of smartphone one prefers, I just have always been in the Apple infrastructure. I won’t discuss the benefits of Android vs. Apple phones, because I don’t really care. I started a Flickr group “iPhone/Android Aesthetic ”. The group was started by me mainly for self-gratification. You’ll need to login to Flicker to take a look www.flickr.com/groups/aestheticiphone/pool and please contribute!

I add strobe lighting to the majority of what I shoot commercially, providing consistency from assignment-to-assignment, with a strong level of preplanned production value to my assignments. My biggest competition? The smart phone, one of the categories of photography that I’ve embraced :) My ideal prospect/client? One that appreciates the benefit a commercial photographer can provide in the promotion of and the sale of the clients’ product and/or service.

What do I shoot with? I started with Canon cameras way back in the early 1970’s, then moved to Canon DSLR’s. I slowly transitioned by adding Leica rangefinders and a Leica SL mirrorless camera, adapting Leica-M rangefinder lenses. I would have grown my Leica system, but feel backend support for the end-user, especially compared to Canon, is severely lacking so I sold the Leica gear. My experience with the mirrorless SL convinced me of the positive benefits of mirrorless technology. I could care less about the smaller form factor of mirrorless, especially when you start adding F2.8 zoom lenses to a camera body affixed with a battery grip. It’s all about the features for me and I can’t go back to a DSLR. Sold the Canon bodies and moved onto the Sony system, using Sony, Voigtländer, and to a lesser degree, my Canon EOS lenses with a Sigma adapter. Will I ever go back to Canon? Maybe, if they continue to develop their mirrorless system.

What lighting gear do I use? I started in the distant past with Speedotron, shot with Balcar for 10+ years, then a little Broncolor in a studio environment. I’ve rented Profoto gear for location shooting as needed. I currently shoot with White lightning Einstein’s, primarily because they use the Balcar mounting system. And most important, the Einstein’s offer good size to power, and a feature-set versus cost benefit. For portability, I shoot Flashpoint strobes & speed lights. They’re extremely accurate, infinitely adjustable, and communicate with each other wirelessly, adapted to my Sony system. In addition, have as of last count 5, LumoPro fully manual speed lights.

I process image files on a Mac. Have tried to use the iPad as a production tool and find it beyond frustrating. I utilize the technology to make an image the best I can provide to the viewer/end user. I never shoot jpgs, even with my iPhone. I usually process images, even iPhone DNG’s, with Capture One Pro 12. Also play with Lightroom but over time, I’ve grown to appreciate C1Pro. Do some Photoshop work, but minimally. I’ve experimented with Affinity and find the interface slows me down. Maybe it’s my Photoshop “muscle memory”? I am beginning to work with the new Library functionality of Luminar 3 by Skylum and finding it to be a good, but incomplete asset management solution as of this writing.