Dave Thomas gallery

David Thomas Photography Biio & URL

October, 2021

I was born in Spokane Washington and with my family, moved to San Francisco before I started school. My father was a newspaper man and photography enthusiast. From him I understood that Edward Weston and Ansel Adams were the touchstones of good image making, My first camera was a 2 ¼ X 3 1/4 speed graphic. After failed efforts at documenting high school sports with it I, migrated to a 35mm Argus (a “Miniature Camera” I was told). Since then I’ve taken pictures to document my travels and discoveries. As I embarked on a career as a working biologist, the camera also became a useful instrument for documenting and even capturing data. This journey has taken me from sheet film capture through 35mm SLRs to current mirrorless digital cameras.

Since I retired in 2006, my photography has become more focused on the natural world, creating images in both color and black and white. Following the dictum of Ansel Adams, I try to envision how I want a print to look and capture it accordingly. Sometimes this works well and I can see, for instance, an image should be processed in black and white or in color. However, in editing, I sometimes change my mind and the process takes me in a different direction. As I only shoot and process from raw files, I have the luxury of going back to the capture and starting over.

Through all this, my central purpose is to document and share things I’ve seen and hope to share with others. At the same time, as I’ve become increasingly involved in conservation activities, the images I capture often have value in increasing viewers understanding of an issue. And, sometimes they provide documentation in support of actions intended to resolve environmental issues.

https://dbridgeford.smugmug.com.