Contact Information

If you wish to contact me to purchase a print, license an image, or for any other reason, please use FlickrMail: (www.flickr.com/mail/write/?to=42199523@N08), Alternatively, go to the contact page on my website at ronrothbart.myportfolio.com.

Usage Guidelines

N.B. I'm happy and flattered if you want to use any of my images. But please ask permission via FlickrMail. I like to know how my images are being used, and I ask that you link to my image or credit me. If you want to use an image for non-commercial purposes, the image is free. If the image is used for money-making purposes, I expect payment.

or bit.ly/3k6r1m1

o View my website at ronrothbart.myportfolio.com

o View my award winning photos.

o View my photos that have been exhibited.

o View my photos that have been EXPLORED! on Flickr. (What's EXPLORE? FAQ)

Member, Berkeley Camera Club

Administrator, Berkeley Camera Club Flickr group

Member, Berkeley Fine Art Photographers

Member, f15 group (Click "Preview")

"Photography, for me, is not the end product, it’s the experience, and it’s being there, doing it.” - Michael Kenna

"I exaggerate, sometimes I make changes in the subject; but still I don't invent the whole picture. On the contrary, I find it already there. It's a question of picking out what one wants from nature."

- Vincent Van Gogh

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

- Henry David Thoreau

"The camera is much more than a recording apparatus. It is a medium via which messages reach us from another world."

- Orson Welles

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

- Albert Einstein

"Photography is still a very new medium and everything is allowed and everything should be tried."

- Bill Brandt

Statement

Photographers often refer to their craft as a journey, and that rings true for me. My journey began when my point-and-shoot film camera careened down a canyon wall in Death Valley and broke into a thousand pieces. I had a drawer full of snapshots from travels and backpacks, so I decided not to replace the camera and instead take a breather from seeing the world through a lens.

Then, years later, planning a trip to India, I thought, "No way am I going without a camera." Then I thought maybe I should learn something about this photography stuff. So I read up on it. Back from India with a stash of photos, I signed up for Flickr and joined the Berkeley Camera Club. The club and various off-shoot groups and activities provided a wonderful local community in which to learn and grow.

I began dabbling in all sorts of photography. Eventually a friend and I got hooked on night photography. It was so interesting to find that at night, with a long exposure, a camera could see things that I couldn't. Seeing the world through a lens took on new meaning. Then I ran across daytime long-exposure photographs online. With a neutral density filter, I could do during the day something like what I had been doing at night. In the next couple of years, using long exposures, I must have photographed every bridge, pier, and piling in San Francisco Bay.

Since then, I've moved on to new challenges, more complex, color images of landscapes, seascapes, trees, and woodland. But nothing fundamental has changed. I'm still excited about what a camera can see. And going out to photograph is always something of an adventure. Even if I have a plan, I never know what I'm going to find. Shooting is a challenge, sometimes a puzzle. The light changes, the clouds come and go. There's a lot to figure out: composition, camera settings, and so forth. When I really get into it, when I'm focused on the task at hand, I experience the "flow state." The experience of the shoot is as important to me as the result. And the goal is still to create evocative images pleasing to the eye, images that speak to me, and hopefully to others as well.

The journey continues.

Exhibitions

• Ten Years, f15 Group, Frank Bette Center for the Arts, Alameda, CA, February, 2024

• Transitions, Berkeley Fine Art Photographers, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Alabany, CA, 2022

• Through the Looking Glass, Blake Garden UC Berkeley, Kensington, CA, February-March, 2020

• Eight Lenses, Art Gallery at the Orinda Library, January, 2020

• Visions of Democracy, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Albany, December 2018-January 2019

• Language of Light, the LightRoom, Berkeley, November-December, 2018

• Berkeley Fine Art Photographers, Orinda Community Center, Orinda, CA, October, 2017

• Berkeley Fine Art Photographers, LightRoom, Berkeley, CA, April-May, 2016

• "Climate Change," Juried, Art Works Downtown, 1337 Gallery, San Rafael, CA, Jan- Feb, 2016

• f15 Group, Nielsen Arts, Berkeley, CA, December, 2015 – February, 2016

• Digital Arts Collective, Lightroom Gallery, Berkeley CA, Nov. 2015

• Berkeley Fine Art Photographers, Photolab, Berkeley, CA, March-April, 2015

• Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct, Vermont, Feb-March, 2015

• f15 Group, UC Theatre Gallery, July-August, 2014

• Digital Arts Collective, 3rd Floor, Berkeley City College, May, 2014 - May, 2015

• Berkeley Fine Art Photographers, Nelly's Java Cafe, Oakland, CA, April, 2014

• Digital Arts Collective, Jerry Adams Gallery, Berkeley City College, January 24 - February 27, 2014

• Berkeley Camera Club, Nielsen Arts, Berkeley, CA, December 14, 2013 - February 5, 2014

• Berkeley Camera Club, Center Street Lobby Gallery, City of Berkeley and Expressions Gallery, August 10 - November 1, 2013

• Annual Photography Competition, First Place, Thousand Oaks Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA, June 8 - July 8, 2013

• Berkeley Camera Club, Lightroom Gallery, Berkeley, CA, August 13 - Sept. 7, 2012

• Permanent collection, Musée des religions du monde (Museum of world’s religions), Nicolet, Québec, from May 29, 2012

• Berkeley Camera Club, Zocalo Coffeehouse, San Leandro, CA, May, 2012

• Berkeley Camera Club, Nieslen Arts, Berkeley, CA, December 11 - February 12, 2012

• Berkeley Camera Club, Nelly's Java Cafe, Oakland, CA, Aug. 1 - Aug. 31, 2011

• The Art of Jazz and Music, 57th Street Gallery, Oakland, CA, Nov. 2 - Dec. 12, 2010

Gear

o Starting in May 2024, I've been using a Canon R7 mirrorless camera and a set of Nisi Swift filters (ND and polarizer).

o Starting in 2023, I've been using a Fotopro Sherpa Max carbon fiber tripod with FPH-62QS Arca-Type Ball Head.

o My lenses: Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM, EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 II, and Holga lens for Canon.

o Starting in June 2017, I added an iPhone 7 Plus.

o Starting in November 2016, I added a Sony DSC RX100 for use on hikes, about town, and when traveling.

o Between May, 2015 and 2024, I used a Canon Rebel T6s. From April, 2010 to 2015, I used a Canon Rebel XSi. And before that, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5.

o With the XSi, I used the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. It died after a few years due to a well-known defect, was fixed, and then died again a couple of years later.

o Previous filters: Hoya Circular Polarlizer, B+W 10-stop neutral density filter (110 ND 3.0), B+W 6-stop neutral density filter (106 1.8-64X), XUME magnetic adapters.

o Previous tripod: Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod Legs with 498RC2 Ball Head (7 lbs)

For post-processing, I use Lightroom and Photoshop. I used to use Nik plugins, but not much anymore.