ABOUT
About five years ago a friend gave me an old 1970s-era Canon AE-1 film camera. It changed my life – no, really … it did.
For several years before that I had wanted to study photography but I could never seem to put away the money to buy a decent SLR camera. With this old relic, I took my first black & white photo class at Cuyahoga Community College, learned how to process and print my stuff in the darkroom and got hooked on all of it. Soon, I moved on to digital imaging and graphics.
My background is in broadcast and print media – 15 years, primarily as a writer and editor. But one class per semester here and there has really opened up a new outlet for my creativity while strengthening my skills as a journalist.
I was able to take what I learned at Tri-C and use it at work in my capacities as a copy editor and sports editor, cropping and editing shots for print. Huge help. I’ve also had the privilege of shooting a couple of NASCAR races, the Indy 500, three All-Star Games, Cleveland Browns football and a few Midwest GAA Irish football games.
While I haven’t been in a darkroom in a couple of years – they’re disappearing, especially on college campuses (which I think is a HUGE mistake) – I now shoot mostly with a Pentax K10D digital SLR and have moved on to processing and editing in Photoshop. I still pull out the old Canon from time to time, but it’s just not the same when a lab does the processing.
But I also started taking pictures of my hometown of Cleveland and my parents’ home villages in the west of Ireland, and was able to make some extra money selling framed prints. To my surprise, people really liked my stuff. And better yet, they bought my prints.
So now with a combined 20 years plus of experience in writing, editing, sales and promotions, radio news, mechanics and customer service, I know how to make things go right while being prepared to prevent the multitude of things that can go wrong.
Feel free to poke around the site. I hope you like what you see.
– Tom Mulloy