ANDY SCHWARTZ - Owner/Photographer for SOARING LIGHT IMAGES
My very first film camera was Kodak “Brownie” back in the early 1960’s, that my father had given me. When I entered Junior (Middle) High School near Spring Valley, NY (27 miles northwest of NYC), my older brother and I bought a Honeywell Pentax ‘Spotmatic’ with a 50mm f1.4 lens. We got some advice from our local neighborhood “Good Humor” Ice Cream man, whose girl friend’s father was an admiral in the US Navy and knew of a camera store in Kowloon, Hong Kong where we could order the camera for a very cheap price. It took months to deliver but that is how we both really began our photography hobby.
We both spent many hours in a darkroom we built in the basement and took lots of photos for the school newspaper and yearbook.
Before I finished high school, a friend and I went into NYC, where I purchased from 47th st. camera shop, a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL 35mm camera with a black body. I used this camera all through college at SUNY Albany in upstate NY where I majored in Fine Arts and took several B&W photography classes.
I graduated from college in May of 1976 and soon after, moved to the Denver metro area in Colorado, where I continued shooting color slides and print film, of the nearby Rocky Mountains.
I began working for AT&T Bell Labs in Sept. of 1977 in the drafting dept. Eventually, I moved into the graphics group and took over as building photographer.
In 1994, the company bought me one of the first DSLR cameras made by Kodak using a Nikon film body that had one of the first digital sensors (Kodak DCS200).
In early 2000, I bought my first Nikon Coolpix 990 compact digital camera which would be replaced a few years later with the Nikon Coolpix 8700.
In late April of 2006, I purchased my first Nikon DSLR camera - a NIKON D50. This would be replaced in February of 2008 with a NIKON D300 which is my current camera of choice.
With the purchase of more professional lenses in the next 2 years, I decided to establish this business as a result of joining the Louisville Art Association (August of 2009 - http://www.louisvilleart.org) and signed up for their public art program to exhibit/sell photos in local businesses.
In 2011, I submitted 3 photos and had 2 accepted into the 20th Annual Louisville Art Association Juried NATIONAL Photography Show, held July 2 - 10 at the Louisville Center for the Arts.
To learn more about my background, please visit my personal website: http://www.andyschwartz.net
My very first film camera was Kodak “Brownie” back in the early 1960’s, that my father had given me. When I entered Junior (Middle) High School near Spring Valley, NY (27 miles northwest of NYC), my older brother and I bought a Honeywell Pentax ‘Spotmatic’ with a 50mm f1.4 lens. We got some advice from our local neighborhood “Good Humor” Ice Cream man, whose girl friend’s father was an admiral in the US Navy and knew of a camera store in Kowloon, Hong Kong where we could order the camera for a very cheap price. It took months to deliver but that is how we both really began our photography hobby.
We both spent many hours in a darkroom we built in the basement and took lots of photos for the school newspaper and yearbook.
Before I finished high school, a friend and I went into NYC, where I purchased from 47th st. camera shop, a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL 35mm camera with a black body. I used this camera all through college at SUNY Albany in upstate NY where I majored in Fine Arts and took several B&W photography classes.
I graduated from college in May of 1976 and soon after, moved to the Denver metro area in Colorado, where I continued shooting color slides and print film, of the nearby Rocky Mountains.
I began working for AT&T Bell Labs in Sept. of 1977 in the drafting dept. Eventually, I moved into the graphics group and took over as building photographer.
In 1994, the company bought me one of the first DSLR cameras made by Kodak using a Nikon film body that had one of the first digital sensors (Kodak DCS200).
In early 2000, I bought my first Nikon Coolpix 990 compact digital camera which would be replaced a few years later with the Nikon Coolpix 8700.
In late April of 2006, I purchased my first Nikon DSLR camera - a NIKON D50. This would be replaced in February of 2008 with a NIKON D300 which is my current camera of choice.
With the purchase of more professional lenses in the next 2 years, I decided to establish this business as a result of joining the Louisville Art Association (August of 2009 - http://www.louisvilleart.org) and signed up for their public art program to exhibit/sell photos in local businesses.
In 2011, I submitted 3 photos and had 2 accepted into the 20th Annual Louisville Art Association Juried NATIONAL Photography Show, held July 2 - 10 at the Louisville Center for the Arts.
To learn more about my background, please visit my personal website: http://www.andyschwartz.net
© Soaring Light Images