Steve Somerville

Please visit my youtube presentation called: Light + Time.
Copy and paste this: Light + Time Photography www.somervillephotos.com
or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_MJgH1A8_k

somervillephotos@gmail.com

It could be the intensity of a wolf's stare, a silver droplet of rain at the tip of a leaf or the determination of a child learning a new skill. The world around us is filled with many, many amazing scenes. Photography is about the emotion of the moment and capturing it to present that emotion to others.
I am always looking for unique places to photograph - be it a secluded seaside village, an abandoned barn, a pond frequented by wildlife. But good photos can be created practically anywhere.
This site is linked directly to my website: www.somervillephotos.com where you can view my portfolio and blogs.
I hope you enjoy my 'emotion of the moment' images presented here. I will continuously be adding more images to this gallery. Feel free to send your comments.
Thank you for visiting.

Please note: all images here at FAA are for personal, non-commercial home or office decor use only. To use these images for commercial purposes, please contact vendor/photographer: somervillephotos@gmail.com

The rest of the story:
Since junior grade school I'd been diligently studying the photos in newspapers as well as Sports Illustrated and National Geographic magazines and decided I wanted to try my eye at becoming a great photographer. I'd read that anyone can be anything they want in life if they're prepared to put in lots of work and persevere. And if you really enjoy what you are pursuing, then you are miles ahead on your journey. Not really grasping the depth of this statement, I ventured ahead anyway.

In my early trial and error stage, I started photographing at The Gazette, the University of Western Ontario's student newspaper. It offered valuable experience in meeting deadlines and overcoming technical difficulties of which there were many. Then in the early 1980s I expanded my horizons further, photographing mountains in Alberta while working as a waiter (now called servers) at the Chateau Lake Louise.

In 1984 I went to London, England where I became a darkroom technician at a photographic agency called Colorsport, a company that distributed their photographs to publications all around the world. Colorsport consisted of three photographers in an office stuffed with hundreds of boxes and file cabinets of sports photographs, negatives and slides. My job was to manually print black & white photos, process and copy colour slide photos and send them off by post or courier to these publications (digital cameras, Photoshop, email and the internet weren't around then). But the bonus was that they sent me - a fairly naiive, but motivated kid - out to photograph soccer, rugby, athletics, boxing and cricket matches. They handed me two well-used Nikons, a bunch of lenses, a beat up old camera bag and some film. My first assignment was with Colin'Big C' Elsey, a renowned rugby photographer (you can google him) who showed me how to load film quickly, properly hold the camera with the big lens and anticipate where to be for the next play without getting bowled over by 250-lb. players. I was impressed by his fast-thinking abilities and reaction skills and tried my best to emulate him. One of my photos from this assignment was published in the national Daily Telegraph newspaper. I was thrilled. Being big in the world of rugby, Big C also taught me proper beer drinking techniques which I paid for dearly the next morning and throughout my two years in England at Colorsport. I ventured ahead anyway.

I returned to Toronto in 1986 and immediately began freelancing with the Hockey News, Toronto Sun and other publications, while photographing stock images of nature and wildlife. I landed a part-time job as a news photographer at the Richmond Hill Liberal newspaper, one of many suburban papers owned by Metroland, a division of the Torstar Corporation. I maintained my freelance work photographing for several publications and Colorsport. Assignments included covering the NFL, NHL and the Calgary Olympics (remember Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, the now-legendary British ski jumper?).

In the 90s I met a fabulous photographer and overall great guy named John Narvali: www.narvali.com, who mentored me on many things including how to conduct business professionally, with pride, while keeping grounded with a sense of humour. He helped me expand my technical knowledge, creativity and confidence. I became totally immersed into studio, food, advertising photography.

In the late 90s, Radisson Hotels and Resorts hired me to continue an ad campaign started by renowned photographer Elliot Erwitt, photographing hotel employees interacting with guests. We flew all over North America on these intense shoots. These images ran in many major publications including the New York Times, USA Today, BusinessWeek and Forbes. In the meantime, I introduced writing to my skill set and had articles and photos published in the Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Sun, Explore magazine, Travel Holiday magazine and others.

Today I work at Metroland's York Region Media Group. Along with all the newspapers, we produce a high-end lifestyle magazine as well as other publications. I contribute daily to our website: www.yorkregion.com and now shoot lifestyle and news videos as well. I still freelance, but am now taking stock photos of nature, wildlife, travel and abstracts mostly and lead photography workshops. This type of photography is very exhilarating to me, with lots of room for creativity and experimentation. I hope to produce a book of my work in the future.

Feel free to contact me with your comments.

Venturing ahead, Steve Somerville

somervillephotos@gmail.com


*** The images presented at Fine Art America are for retail, non-commercial, personal decor purposes only. These images are copyright owned and protected by Steve Somerville. For commercial, public relations, publications, website art, advertising, and any and all other uses, including reproduction and/or re-transmission, please contact the vendor at: somervillephotos@gmail.com

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