Biography

Jeff Warner is a photographer in Golden, Colorado who shoots aerial imagery, sports/action, portraiture, events, and images of our environment. Spending the last 15 years flying helicopters (primarily in the air medical industry) affords Jeff a unique perspective on the world, so aptly illustrated in the galleries of this website. Jeff enjoys time with his family camping, hiking, backpacking, skiing, mountain climbing, and racing bicycles competitively, while documenting life utilizing a variety of photographic tools.

After graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in Geology, Jeff found himself working as a residential real estate appraiser for a lending institution in Northern California. A chance encounter with a hydrogeologist/climber near the summit of Mt. Shasta led Jeff into a job in environmental consulting, successfully making use of his college degree. Inadvertently, that same individual later played a pivotal role in Jeff's fortuitous encounter with his future wife, atop the summit of Mt. Diablo during a bike race. After getting married and having spent five years in environmental consulting, the job became less fieldwork-oriented, more of a management position tied to a desk. Jeff found himself staring out the window at helicopters flying by, and having wanted to fly since graduating from college, he quit his job and went to flight school, with the ultimate goal of flying an air medical helicopter in the Colorado mountains. Fifteen years of flying later (a large portion of which was spent high in the mountains around Summit County), Jeff is now eagerly moving forward with the next phase of life.

FOREWORD: i.e., Why Photography?

"Jeff, why don't you do something with your photography?"

I've heard that question asked of me in myriad ways since college, but never possessed a reason fulfilling enough to try to convey the answer (thus, "I don't know..." was the result). After decades of shooting and 15 years flying helicopters, in 2007 I finally decided to move forward and I started up my own photography business. The portfolio of images contained herein give some insight into my experiences and perceptions as a photographer.

Over the years, I've tended to capture images of 'things' in life. Since college, I've tried to be observant of those little things all around us that we often take for granted, seemingly everyday items that typically remain unnoticed by many, if not most. Sometimes with enough study and/or thought, a seemingly mundane object or view can be turned into something unique and inspiring (to me, at least). The images I see in my mind, those I create with specific intent almost always are minimalist in nature, images that at first glance contain little information, but taken as a whole reveal levels of detail beyond that which is first observed. While shooting personal work I sometimes set out with a specific subject matter in mind, and endeavor to capture the intended subject given the ambient conditions, both environmental and visceral. Other times, I simply set out with camera and no specific subject in mind, trying to be aware of my surroundings and of situations unfolding around me, whether societal or environmental. Sometimes the approach leads to something definitive, sometimes not. The occasional 'happy accident' (many thanks to sculptor/photographer Mark Lindquist for the term, among other things) may lead me down new paths, while I continue to explore decades-long relationships with other subjects, still trying to perfect the outcome, to complete the cycle and move on.

My first camera at 10 years old was a Kodak 110 Instamatic (with a little personalized stars & stripes sticker near the shutter button), and I shot happily until each little plastic film roll was exhausted; I wish I still had that camera! Every chance I got, I'd glom onto my uncle's or grandmother's 35mm SLR, tenuously firing away to their financial dismay. In high school I got a job at Walgreen's, and saved the money to buy my first 'real' camera, a Canon AE-1 Program, to which I later added an assortment of lenses, flashes, and accessories. In college came my revered Canon F-1N with AE Motor Drive FN (a high capacity cold-weather battery worthy of Upstate NY winters), as well as a Mamiya 645-1000s upon graduation. After shooting film for decades, over time I quietly wished for more control, in addition to wanting more accurate records of the details of the images I made. After going through a couple of 'point and shoot' digital cameras to get familiar with the impending digital technology, I waited until the industry produced the camera that I felt truly matched or exceeded the quality of 35mm film. Having shot more than 20,000 frames of film since the early 80's, in 2003 I transitioned to digital with the camera that I think will ultimately go down in history as the catalyst for 'the turning point' in digital photography, the Canon Eos 1Ds.

Adapting to the new workflow of editing and post-processing images took some time, although the basic principles of photography remained: light, composition, technical control over exposure, etc. Although the photography industry has intrinsically changed due to the advent of digital and the death of film, I'd say that there are two significant things that it has enabled for me: 1) to become proficient at sports and action shooting (prior to digital, developing skills shooting action/sports was a costly endeavor), and 2) having complete control over the image, from capture to output. The latter is undoubtedly the most important aspect of photography that digital technology has allowed into the hands of the photographer, as in the film days most people relied on others to print their images. I spent hundreds of hours in a B&W darkroom in college, but have since found that a computer and digital file is much more efficient and effective, despite how laborious the process can be. It has not, however, changed the basic premise of the images I shoot, my formal photographic education having been forged in the photojournalism department of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. I generally choose not to use the more heavy-handed tools of today's powerful editing software (thus Adobe Lightroom is my software of choice), as I consider the substance of the image to be made in the camera, while the post-processing of the image simply a vehicle intended to allow the vision to become reality, not to create the reality (or lack thereof).