Mark like make picture

[MarkBennett13]

My love of photography developed over the course of a few years, driven by seeing my own “work.” That means, at first, seeing the oft-blurry slides I shot as a 12-year-old boy visiting the Smithsonian with my father, using his Zeiss Ikon Contessa (which I still have). When I moved to Arizona during my high school years, as a senior I signed up for a semester on the Yearbook staff and, during that semester, learned how to process b&w film and to print it. I shot a lot of the non-formal, non-posed images. My photo of the sun shining through the American flag on our flag pole is the first image you see in that yearbook — that was 1976, our bicentennial year, thus apropos. (I was shooting with the Zeiss, by the way.)

In college, I trained as a product designer, and that included one semester of photography study. Whether I was good or not, I was developing my own style and came home with an 8×10 box, or two, of b&w prints that clearly showed that burgeoning style. I don’t think I was a particularly adept student, formally, but I collected and drank in the work of masters from around the world.

After graduation, I tried my hand at a photography business, but was not yet suited for all that entails. But I got a “real” job with a division of Bally Midway, the video game company, that involved product design and photography, so that was heaven. Until the technologies changed and the parent corporation shut down our unit. Still, my every job has been or involved photography, so I’ve got 30+ years of experience — you’d think I’d be better than I am…

I co-founded an advertising/marketing agency 15 years ago, with a complete focus on aerospace, so my professional photography now includes, in addition to people and products, air-to-air helicopters (many, many flights — it’s magic!)

My personal work tends toward nature, more often man’s presence in nature, taking advantage of the deserts of Arizona. Any time I travel with a camera, I’m often found stopped by the side of the road, or way off the road, following my nose for these vignettes. My styles are varied, my post-processing is likewise. I shoot what I want and process to make things I find interesting.

And, by the way, my daughter took a photography class in high school and came to me afterward with a box of b&w prints. She was proudly sharing them when I interrupted her, fished my box of college prints from a closet, and showed her a couple of mine. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed, “we shoot the same crap!” It was glorious.

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

Wow, that is quite a background @markbennett13 – gotta admit that an ad agency aimed at aerospace sounds pretty intriguing. Look forward to getting to know you. 🙂

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