P.J. Heller
P.J. Heller is a freelance writer and photographer based in Southern California.
Website URL: http://www.photoreporters.net E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Julia Dean: Sharing a Vision with the Next Generation Unpublished
The founder of one of the nation's most prestigious photo workshops is helping aspiring photographers carry on her passion for socially concerned imagery.
Committed. Concerned. Caring. Those three C's pretty much sum up photographer Julia Dean, who not only has incorporated those elements into her life and work but also has strived to encourage other photographers to do so through her teaching.
"The thing that impresses me most about Julia is her desire to make a difference in people's lives," says longtime friend Reid Callanan, founder and director of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
This year, Dean, who established the prestigious Julia Dean Photo Workshops nearly a decade ago, is moving into high gear with her love of photography about...
Rick Smolan: Reinventing the Picture Book Unpublished
Through the use of interactive media and print-on-demand technology, Rick Smolan has pushed the limits of the photography book and brought the world closer together.
In the assignment photography world, the best in the business tend to thrive on pressure — the pressure of looming deadlines, tight travel schedules, difficult access, impossible working conditions, live ammunition. But all of these factors pale in comparison to the toughest challenge a photographer faces: lack of control.
In just his third assignment for Time magazine, a young Rick Smolan landed a color cover story on the famously intimidating opera conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1975. "I had never shot any color...
IN THE LOUPE: Mark Moffett Unpublished
Home and office location: Greenport, N.Y., on Long Island, but he‚ not there for very long stretches. "Home is where you store stuff," Moffett says.
Most memorable assignment: Photographing Phyllobates terribilis, the world‚ deadliest poison dart frog, in a remote valley in Colombia when the frog decided to leap at him. A single frog, which is lethal to the touch, could kill 400 to 500 people.
Advice for nature photographers: "Know the science behind what is being photographed," he says. "Look for the new and be a storyteller. The fact is, I believe life is all about telling stories."
Website: MarkMoffett.com
Mark Moffett: The Adventures of Doctor Bugs Unpublished
Entomologist and photographer Mark Moffett uses his magnified images to tell the larger-than-life stories of the natural world.
On the outside, Mark Moffett may be 51 years of age. But deep down inside, he‚ still a shy little kid wandering through the woods, searching for bugs, snakes and other small creatures. And like any playful youngster, he‚ not above dumping a huge spider on the head of a terrified Conan O‚Brien on his late-night TV show or handing an African bullfrog weighing nearly five pounds to a somewhat apprehensive Stephen Colbert on "The Colbert Report."