Photographer Profiles

Unlike landscape, portrait, wildlife, or even sports photographers, the first shots taken these days by advertising photographers on the job are almost always instantly seen and judged—by the client, the client’s representative, an agency rep, or an art director. Pressure, anyone?

Pets are beloved members of the family and increasing numbers of pet parents (as well as shelters and rescue organizations) want good quality portraits of these funny, furry “kids." Brooklyn-based photographer Brooke Jacobs is answering that call by creating beautiful portraits that expertly capture the unique personality of her client’s pets.

American photographer Courtney Colantonio-Ray was recently named the winner of the US National Award in the prestigious 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. Colantonio-Ray’s winning image “Dancer in Pause” was chosen as the single best photo taken by an American photographer entered into any of the 10 Open categories of the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards (the world’s biggest photography competition).

My dog-eared copy of Josef Koudelka’s Gypsies sits in the bookcase next to Cartier-Bresson’s Decisive Moments and Robert Frank’s The Americans. Like those books, it was fundamental to my development as a photographer. From the moment I saw it I was mesmerized by its stunning black-and-white images. Published by Aperture Books in 1975, it contained page after page of Koudelka’s dark and brooding photographs of European gypsies; the Romani or Roma people.

Margot Cheel is an award-winning aerial photographer whose work has been exhibited in New England, South Florida and Ontario Canada. Cheel’s photos have also appeared in numerous publications, calendars and environmental presentations. She recently published a hard cover photography book of her coastal images of Cape Cod entitled “Sea & Sand from the Sky: Aerial Photography”.

Cheel received her Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College, Vermont, and worked in production at WGBH-TV in Boston. She is also the co-founder the Twin Willows Arts and Craft Center in Ontario, Canada. After more than three decades as a creative arts teacher, she launched an aerial photography business that merged her love of the arts with her passion for flying. 

If there’s one thing to be learned from a 27-year career shooting for the New York Daily News, covering everything from breaking news to sports, food to fashion, it’s to keep your eyes open. David Handschuh calls this photo “the ultimate walking around with your eyes open picture.”

[Column Note: Most people come to professional photography by traveling a familiar route: from an early fascination with cameras, to photo classes and courses, followed by assisting a pro to gain some real-world experience. Then comes striking out on one's own as photographer, which, if all goes well, is followed by the frequent printing of invoices. Others, however, arrive at a pro career sideways—that is, coming at it from another occupation. The stories these "second career" pro photographers tell tend to be quite interesting, even inspirational. And those stories are what this new online column, titled Going Pro, is all about.]