About Kirk Carter

I take pictures of things I want people to see. My photos are meant to encourage a closer, slower, more careful look.

So many views of the world deserve closer attention. I look for them, photograph them, and show them for anyone who wants to see more.

:: Background

Whether snapshots, photographs, film or video, I've been shooting pictures since 1975. I learned black and white darkroom skills at the University of Maine. My student films at New York University incorporated stills, sometimes cut and pasted together to create "special" effects.

For most of the 1980's, I produced television shows for local cable stations. In video, a still image must convey an idea within 3-5 seconds, because there's no going back to see it again.

After earning a BSEE from the University of Central Florida in the 90's, I designed cellular base stations for AT&T. PowerPoint and a Sony Mavica were my communication tools of choice.

In 2000, I started Service First Webmasters, a business web site services company. A Nikon Coolpix was my first modern digital camera. With it I created product shots and images to serve as backgrounds and other graphic elements for web sites.

Service First Webmasters is still going strong, which is unusual in our industry. All to the good, as it now supports my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I now shoot with a Nikon D300, some great lenses, and a Panasonic LX2.

:: Photography Education

My education in photography includes taking lots of pictures, analyzing same, and trying to do better next time. I've also learned a great deal by osmosis from Cedric Rudisill (okay, osmosis and an endless stream of questions).

The stack of art and film courses I took were not enough to really understand what goes on in a still photo. Hence, my Book Acquisition Syndrome.

In essence, I'm a self-teaching photographer. The journey continues.

:: Image-Making Approach

My goal is always for the viewer to say, "Wow." "Wow!!" is better, but I'll take "Wow" and be happy. If they say, "I wish I'd taken that" or "I never saw it this way before" I consider the photo successful.

Getting there is, of course, the hard part. A good exposure with the right point of view, depth, focal point and sharpness is a great starting point. After that I explore what cropping and retouching might do to remove distractions and improve the clarity of the photo's statement.

All my photos get a kind of brush and polish in Photoshop, as a way of making them as technically perfect as possible. If I can add some drama or direct attention to the subject better through modifications to the tones or colors, I'll do it. The key is to keep it looking real. To me, if the viewer cannot believe what they see in the photo, the effort has failed.

:: Recognition

'Blue Moon' is included in a book called Roy G. Biv, published by Justus Hayes in 2008.

'River Bend' and 'Rocky Knob Meadow' received Honorable Mentions in the 2008 Scenic Virginia Photo Contest.

'Family Beach Walk on Assateague' was the Grand Prize Winner, by unanimous decision, in the 2008 Scenic Virginia Photo Contest.