Graduates

David Burke (Dave) - Florence, OR - David Burke has had jobs of nearly every type - all over the country. The one thing he has never allowed himself to focus on to generate revenue from is his extraordinary ability to paint and in particular, caricatures and illustration. David shared with us hundreds of images and characters that he has created over his lifetime - many for the pleasure of friends, family and mostly, his children. He was a joy to spend 5 days with and it was a pleasure to see him 'let loose' when given an unlimited quantity of ram, scratch disc and a professionally calibrated environment to create in. Some of David's work was created by placing caricatures into existing photographs. Others were created completely from his minds eye using painting tools and filters available in Photoshop. David's high energy and lust for living were apparent and motivating and we were glad to have him part of the crew - even though his nickname is the sly pirate 'Captain Stumpy'.
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David Mason (Dave) - Florence, OR - David Mason has a great avid fondness of photography dating back to his father, Elwood, who photographed the early years of air racing during the early 1930's and also took many images of life in the CCC camps during the same time period. Apparently photography is in Dave's DNA and he spends most of his time in Florence historically documenting the day to day life of his best friend Elwood - his 15-year old Golden Retriever. David posts information about Elwood, who has a worldwide following, on his website at: www.goldendog.net or you can write to him at: elwood@presys.com.
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Erin Jorgensen - New York, NY - Erin Jorgensen is a studio manager for Frank Ockenfels, - a New York-based photographer. Frank's work is a extremely different and personal. Over the years he has photographed both writers, musicians, celebrities, both on the fringe and the mainstream of society. Frank is very talented in that he has found his own style of photography and is beginning to cross over to digital. Erin, who has worked for Frank for a couple of years, came out to do the Passage workshop to hone in on her skill of scanning, digital imaging and inkjet printing. A photographer in the ruff, Erin worked with her images as well as Frank's during the workshop.
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Frederick Blum (Fredo) - New York, NY - Frederick Blum got his formal education from the Rochester Institute of Technology. (RIT) with a BFA in Fine Arts and a Major in Photo Illustration. He became a master black and white printer and his understanding of photography is founded in the principles of the 'old-school' where optics, film, processing and printing were the tools used by the photographer. After a 25-year career in commercial and editorial photography, he has gone back to RIT to develop his photographic and visual skills in the digital realm. Fred, residing in New York, is what we call a photographer's photographer. He has that rare ability to create a beautiful image with any subject matter - whether it be a person, place or thing. Fred's bible is that "picture content and the information that the image reveals must stay true to the camera's recording process and is still the bottom line."
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Jonathan Reddout (J.T.) - New York, NY - John Reddout, otherwise known as J.T. - was the youngest member of this 'Band of Brothers'. He works very closely with Frederick Blum and came out to immerse himself in all the attributes of the course and the community of Florence. J.T. always had an amazing tale to share with the class as to his moonlit escapades.  J.T.'s beautiful Beach, Ocean and Sky image is used on the opening page of this site. Thanks J.T.!!!
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Matt Sheppard - Big Bear, California - Matt Sheppard is an archival printer and came to us from Big Bear, California. He is extremely talented in his own right and has been doing Photoshop for many years. His particular interest was in Photoshop 7 - expanding and sharing his knowledge with the rest of us on how we resolve the never-ending issues of large format printing, ink gamut and third party media. Matt is the printer for a new outfit entitled Contemporary Editions that will be doing great work with various artists in the future.
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Michael Tilse (Mike) - Tujunga, CA - Michael Tilse, dressed in khaki pants, bush jacket and safari hat, with his Leica gently cradled under one arm, looks like the reportage photographer on assignment in a far-away land. Michael has had an extensive background in photography, fine art printmaking, offset printing, digital imaging and computer networking. Now relocating to the Pacific Northwest, we were lucky to have such a well-versed talent in the class. Michael also created images with his re-fabricated 4x5 Field Linhof. Michael grasped the concepts of layer masks and gradients extremely well.
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Tom Lavine - Medford, OR - Tom Lavine and I had numerous conversations before taking the course. He is in fact a professional photographer and I had not seen any of his work until after the first day - at Cape Argo. Tom's professional background is immersed in the photography of motorcycle road racing events and it became immediately apparent after looking at his work - that he too had a great photographer's eye. Having professional digital equipment, he was able to create numerous images and make them available for both his use and ours. Many of the images used on the website promoting the Passage workshop - were taken by Tom.
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Siuslaw News

Karen Vittek & Ned Hickson

   Karen Vittek and Ned Hickson are both reporters from our local newspaper the 'Siuslaw News'. Karen and Ned are both fine reporters of local issues, politics, community projects, sports and news. They are also photographers for their stories and the newspaper at large.

   Harnessed with both responsibilities, and as much as they were welcomed in the class, their participation was substantially limited due to newspaper deadlines.

Karen Vittek - Florence, OR - Karen's work is a mix of landscapes, usually ignored details of daily life, and intentional attempts to have people ask "What is that !?" She is also renowned at the newspaper for taking as-of-yet-unpublished photos of her feet and her camera strap.
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Ned Hickson - Florence, OR - Ned's style of photography leans more towards people and activities, no matter how bazaar.
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