Joe Colson

As is the case for many photographers “of a certain age”, my interest in photography began in the late 1950’s when I got my first camera – a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. As my enthusiasm grew, my Dad and I built a basement darkroom and began developing and printing our own pictures. Capturing a moment and seeing that moment recreated in black and white in the darkroom was nothing short of magic. And that magic kept my fascination alive through a Bell Labs engineering career, and through the evolution of photography from film to digital. My photographs are an expression of my joy in observing and capturing nature in all its forms. These images capture moments and memories that I can relive and share with you in my galleries.

Equipment & Processing

Several camera systems (Nikon, Hasselblad, Phase One, Cambo, Leica) and formats (35mm film and DSLR, medium format digital) have been used for my photography. Currently I use both a Leica S medium format digital (MFD) system and a Leica M digital full-frame 35mm rangefinder system. Leica lenses are known for their superior sharpness and clarity, edge to edge. The Leica S MFD is ideal for landscapes and portraiture and the Leica M 35mm rangefinder is perfect as a “walk around” and travel camera. When shooting with either system, my processing starts and ends with Adobe Lightroom, with round trips to Adobe Photoshop as necessary for fine tuning. My computers are an Apple Mac Pro with a 30″ monitor and a 15″ MacBook Pro. I print images using an Epson Stylus Pro 7900, which produces 24″-wide prints.

If you have any questions about equipment or workflow, please contact me using the Contact page on this site.

Photo courtesy of Ron Basinger