My inroads to photography came through cinematography. After several years of teaching myself how to shoot with a prosumer video camera, I attended film school in Hollywood, California, and quickly came to the realization that motion pictures and still images are about 90% the same process. So I picked up an old 35mm SLR, with the idea that it would help me master the basics of filmmaking.

It wasn’t very long before I fell in love with stills in their own right. I shot with that camera for about a year before picking up another, this time a stereo-3D medium format camera. A year after that, I felt ready to enter the digital world and bought a Canon 60D. And I’ve been riding down that fork in the road ever since, continuously inspired by older and older techniques & equipment, while also appreciating our rapidly improving digital technology and the faster/sharper lenses of today. I now have a collection of about 25 cameras, all of which I use at different times for different projects.  

It’s been almost 200 years now since we started this strange tradition of capturing light on flat surfaces. I’m forever fascinated with images from our past, and the stories & people behind them, and truly feel a part of some lineage of camera people. I wake up every day excited at the prospect of creating a few more special images to add to our collective history. 

I’ve been inactive for the past several years on this site, as my passions lead me into different areas of photography. I’m currently a full-time photographer for an agricultural company, which is mostly candids & product shots, and a limited amount of posed photos.

I'm a big believer in learning from failure. As much as possible, I put myself in situations where I'm not quite sure what I'll get. That's almost always more exciting & rewarding to me than simply shooting in ways that I'm already good at.

My hobbyist side has really gotten deep into shooting stereo film this past year or two, and I’m now at a place where I’m constantly having ideas for 3D photo shoots, but would enjoy them more, and achieve better work, with models (as opposed to friends). I’ve been missing working with people who WANT to be in front of the camera as much as I want to be behind it.


FYI on the Stereo-3D images:

Unless you have a special viewer, or can pull off the cross-eye method, stereo slides are pretty unimpressive to look at on a computer screen or smartphone. The film slides really have to be viewed in person to be fully appreciated. I've included a few here, but there are many more on my website, along with an explanation of how to view them...

www.snellphoto.com/stereo-3d-crossview

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