The cool stuff all photographers are expected to say…

Sean’s first camera was a No. 2 Brownie given to him at age five by his grandmother. This was a mistake as the film and processing costs resulting from his new obsession nearly drove her into bankruptcy over the next two years. Thirty-seven years later, Sean still owns his first camera along with a large collection of antique film cameras and 35mm SLRs.

He pursued other interests during his teenage and early adult years becoming a chef, computer technician, technical author, and technical trainer along the way, but the interest in image-making remained. The advent of digital photography turned the interest back into an obsession, and Sean thinks of little else besides looking through a viewfinder these days (as his wife will tell you).

Sean specializes in portrait, fine art, and landscape photography, and can be found  wandering the Neutral Hills. He is a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography.

Digital Photography and Portrait Lighting, which Sean co-authored with Catherine Jamieson is now on sale.

Maybe not so cool, but still worth knowing…

Sean has been fighting the battle of the bulge for a good chunk of his adult life. Things came to a head back in 2008 when twenty plus years of trying to live exclusively on cheeseburgers caught up with him in a hurry. An emergency hospitalization for excruciating abdominal pain lead to the doctor using words like “diverticular disease, diabetes, hypertension” and so on. Three years and nearly eighty pounds later Sean is making good progress towards his goal weight. More importantly, he’s in good shape for the first time in his adult life thanks to regular exercise in addition to the new, healthy diet.

He used to use SparkPeople as his free exercise and diet tracker, but has recently switched over to MyFitnessPal as their site is less cluttered and their smartphone app doesn’t make you want to stomp your expensive toy into the pavement. Both sites are free and either will be helpful to others trying to lose weight as well.

Other things…

Sean doesn’t watch sports on television, ever. His wife regarded this as a selling point back when they were dating. It was only after they were married she discovered his fondness for watching Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica, which are even less tolerable to her than hockey. Fortunately for Sean she was locked into the relationship by this point.

He likes making ice cream and is rather good at it, which complicates his dieting efforts in a bad way. Ice cream recipes and photos will be forthcoming in the near future.

Sean once had a piece of paper declaring him as being sane, but it has probably expired.