Photographer Profiles

Years ago I took a photograph of prayer flags at a Buddhist monastery in Bhutan, and as I was shooting the image I wished I could also shoot video to record the movement of the flags and the sound they made as they danced in the wind.

[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.]

Gabe Rogel gets a kick out of viewers’ reactions to his photographs. “It’s fun,” he says, “to watch people look at the pictures and realize, Oh, you had to be there, too!”

It’s not your typical image of that place then, which means Mirjam Evers has done her job well. She has images of the colorful chaos of revelers in full regalia, but the challenge is to get something special. “The travel publications I work for ask for something different and unusual,” Evers says. “She was posing, and most of the photographers were shooting from eye level, so I crouched down.”

All Images by Greg Vander Houwen

Greg Vander Houwen describes himself as "an artist by nature; illustrator by trade"--one who often incorporates photography into his digital art. As he puts it, "My primary business is commercial illustration and user interface design." Vander Houwen believes that photography is a limited term these days, and...

Award-winning travel and drone photographer Chase Guttman has a long list of accomplishments, especially for someone who was born when Bill Clinton was President of the U.S. Guttman honed his drone photography skills while travelling across the U.S. to capture breathtaking images of all 50 states from the air.

Herb Ritts (1952-2002) began his career in the late 1970s, when photographers helped ignite the modern celebrity cult. The stars shone so brightly, the media coverage was widespread, and the public’s appetite was so great that the photographers were themselves illuminated by the glow from their subjects.