I took a circuitous route to professional photography.

As a six year old, I used my mother’s box camera with 120 films. Two Christmas’s later, I received my own 110 point and shoot camera. At fifteen, I purchased a Pentax K-1000 single lens reflex camera - a wonderful manual camera with which I learned the concepts of exposure. Every setting needed to be made by hand.

I borrowed photography books from the local library, studied them intensely, and learned that it was possible to develop film and pictures by myself using relatively simple equipment and chemicals. My father had some unused darkroom equipment consisting of an old black and white enlarger that was missing a lens as well as some developing trays, film development canisters and a darkroom light. I took it upon myself to set up a mini darkroom in the closet of my bedroom. This was hardly an ideal place for this activity as the closet only measured two and a half feet by six feet and took a lot of work to make completely dark. Eventually I had a space I could work with. After convincing my father to help me find a lens for the old enlarger, we took a trip to McBain Cameras in downtown Edmonton and managed to get a good deal on a used enlarger lens that someone had traded in. Together with the required chemicals, I purchased the enlarger lens and spent the last of my accumulated savings. At home, my father helped jury-rig a mount for the lens to the enlarger.

Developing my first roll of 35mm black and white film was a memorable experience. I was amazed by how the film had turned translucent and in just a few minutes it transformed into negatives. However, that pales in comparison to the process of enlarging my first picture from a negative. The feeling of wonder that I felt when I put the sheet of 8x10 paper into the development fluid and a picture “magically” appeared is something I will never forget. It was at that moment that I was hooked on photography.

In high school I went to work for the school newspaper where I was finally able to work in a real purpose built darkroom. My closet darkroom survived until I spilt the contents of a developing tray just one time too many and the operation was banned from the closet.

As the end of high school approached and the pressure to choose a career mounted, I seriously considered attending the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (NAIT’s) Photographic Technology program. At the time, my other area of interest was computers and the analytical side of my brain won out when I entered NAIT’s Computer System Technology course.

Upon graduating from NAIT in 1986 I went to work for a company called Softwarehouse as a computer programmer. That turned out to be a good move for my career as I joined an organization that valued my creativity and uniqueness, and allowed me to grow professionally throughout my tenure with the company. I began as a computer programmer, became Information Technology manager, and then in 1995, I started and became President of a new company within Softwarehouse called Interbaun Communications, which provided Internet services to the Edmonton marketplace. I am proud that Interbaun remained profitable from its third month of operations. When Interbaun was sold early in 2005, I left the company.

My interest in photography never waned during those years and when Canon introduced the Digital Rebel, the first “affordable” digital SLR camera, I jumped at the opportunity to be on this new bleeding edge of photography. This was a perfect opportunity to blend my interests in photography and technology.

Before embarking on a career as a freelance writer and photographer, I did a lot of research. I talked to other professionals working in photography and I read everything I could find on the subject. Once I knew that this was where my career was headed, I attended workshops with a number of professional nature photographers including David Middleton and Darwin Wiggett. I believe in life long learning and attempt to keep myself current with the techniques, issues and advances in my career area.

I try to write and photograph in a manner that allows for a true connection with the subject.

I add to my image collection monthly, if not weekly, and I invite you to return regularly to see the new situations and creatures that have appeared in my lens.

In addition to my full-time work as a professional writer and nature photographer, I am a contributing editor for Outdoor Photography Canada Magazine, a photography instructor at Metro Community College and I conduct a number of photography workshops and tours each year..

Please contact me electronically if you have any questions about my work or this web site.

The images and article on this site are protected by copyright and are not to be downloaded, copied or used without permission of the copyright holder, Paul Burwell