About...
Biography...
I was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada and lived there until 2003.
During those years I would play in the vast, beautiful, untouched wilderness
of the Yukon. Couple minutes out of the city and you could be lost forever!
I grew up exploring the hills around Whitehorse with my Dad, sisters, and friends
or by myself in later years. Hiking, mountain biking, & fishing would take
me to new and exciting locations. It wasn’t until my early twenties that a
friend from college got me intrigued about photography, so my first summer
off from college had me heading to the local camera store to pick out my first
SLR camera. I don’t recall why I selected a Nikon, probably because it felt
rugged and had an intuitive control layout, it just felt right. I remember
looking over and over the Nikon brochures and dreaming of the photos I would
take on
my northern safaris and explorations.
Since then I’ve self-studied photography by reading magazines, books and practicing. Later on I joined the local camera club, attending a few workshops. While I was going to college I started working at a local camera store and photo lab. I got to learn about film development, printing and an understanding of colour control. The big benefit was I got free film development and discounted printing.
When I finished college, I left the photography industry and started working in the technology industry. Computers have been an interest since I first saw one in Grade 6. During my years working at the photography lab, I started to mix computers and photography together by working on images in the digital darkroom, long before it was called that. Long before digital cameras were available, I brought images into the computer via scanners and working with them in Corel PhotoPaint. Back in 1998 I restored a 100 year old print that was fading; after scanning and restoring it, I then printed it on an inkjet printer. To make it archival, since inkjet printers in the day faded quickly, I photographed it onto colour negative and then had it printed by a photo lab.
Life
has taken me to many places in western Canada. In 2003, my wife and I moved
to Olds, Alberta and have been exploring Alberta since. Kananaskis Country
is a favorite destination. Also over the last number of years we have
had the
opportunity
to drive many different
roads across Canada.
We've driven to the far north of Inuvik, NWT, to the far West of Tofino,
BC, and to the far East of Newfoundland. 2009 we had the opporunity to
drive across Canada and visit every province. So this web site is a showcase
of
the impressive sights across Canada and a bit into the northern states of
United States. 
Web Site...
My first photography website was created in 1998 (screen shot to right). Over the last 10 years I’ve grown the site and changed the design five times. Now with digital photography, it is even easier to upload new photos. When the first site was created, I was shooting slide film, so I would photograph onto colour negative film the slides I wanted to post on my web site, have them printed and then scan them in via flatbed scanner. We have come a long way in 10 years! The web site runs half on Telus web servers and half on my personal web server. The large images are hosted on my personal server because of the space restriction that Telus puts on my personal websites. There currently is almost 200Mb of files to view. Please be patient when loading the large files, sometimes they may take a second or so to load. If you have problems viewing my site, please let me know.
Equipment...
Great photos can be taken with any equipment, it's the user's visionary eye behind the camera that makes a photo great along with the knowledge of how light works and is gathered on film or digital sensors. I recall in the early days of my photography a video of a National Geography photographer that was using the same consumer level SLR as I was using and taking amazing photos. That said, I still love the technology of a pro level camera and the way a well built camera works. Problem is, this is a hobby and I don't have the cash resources to afford the greatest equipment, so I end up getting the best that falls in my small budget for photography.
That said, this is what I've found works for me (some of this gear is over 15 years old, but it still works well). Camera and lens: Nikon (film and digital) and Nikkor/Tamron (film range 28-400mm; digital range 24-600mm); Flashes: Nikon; Filters: B+W, Cokin; Support: Manfrotto, Slik; Bags: LowePro; Film: Fuji Velvia, Fuji Sensia; Memory Cards: Sandisk Extreme III, Lexar Pro. Computer: Dell running Windows XP; Photo Management: ACDSee Pro 2.5; Photo Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS3; Printer: Canon; Colour Management: Spyder2; Slide Scanner: Minolta.
Purchasing...
For more information, please click here.
Usage and Copyright...
For more information, please click here.
Contact...
If you have any questions or inquiries, please email me at: jeffzac @ telus.net (remove spaces from email address)