October 2009 - Todd Sherrill

I was born and raised in the U.S.A. within the state of South Dakota. Awesome place to grow up and quite easy to make lifelong friends. Over the past 25 years, I’ve also lived in Colorado, California and currently reside outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ve been lucky to have traveled fairly extensively.

Photography, almost exclusively.

I had played around a bit with mid-range film cameras and then small digital point-and-shoot cameras, but I guess my love of photography began about 5 years ago when I purchased my first Digital SLR — an Olympus. I’ve probably had the artistic chip in my brain all along, but family- and work-related interests were always much more of a priority.

As I mentioned, I’d messed around with film sparingly and to this day still have no darkroom experience. While I’m certain that I am missing out, digital photography offered a very quick entry point into the medium and worked best in my case. Interestingly, my youngest son took a photography class at his college last year and I was able to share his darkroom experience from afar. Very cool.

I currently utilize a Nikon D700, which is very nice to work with and quite functional. Admittedly, the camera’s sensor is extremely sensitive and I suspect more times than I care to admit, it self-corrects for operator error. Not exactly like shooting fish in a barrel, but pretty close. Also, I keep reminding some of my online photography friends and I should mention to my new friends who read this article: If my beautiful wife asks you how much I’ve spent on camera gear over the past couple of years, please immediately change the subject of that conversation.

Again, I’m not a professional photographer and in fact am new to the whole debate, but I guess my view is that photography is simply art — a vehicle for creating something really beautiful and/or interesting. If digital photography allows more folks an easy and clean opportunity to express themselves, and makes them happy, then there really is no debate. Definitely not the point-of-view of a purist, but the quality output available from today’s best digital cameras is becoming pretty remarkable.

Nope, no formal training other than a couple of recent technical ‘how-to’ webcasts. The honest story is that beginning long ago I would drop in on public photography exhibits and while admiring the artists’ work would often hear that little voice in your head say, “I can do that” or “I can do better than that”. I wasn’t being cynical or egotistical, but simply building confidence in the fact that I could create something interesting if I ever wanted to jump in to photography more completely.

The blessing part comes from the ability to take note of really beautiful or cool things everyday that evidently other folks don’t see or for which they choose not to focus. The artist’s curse is that you can develop a bit of sensory overload at any moment, wherein you become too focused on those beautiful things. In my case, the best example of the curse is that my wife and kids will no ride in my car if I’m driving, because they believe I constantly “gawk” at everything that we come across during our travels. I’m just looking for the next cool photo opp but they’ve revolted and I guess I don’t blame them.

Not really. I’ve sketched a bit in pencil many years ago and as I recall had a knack for it, but never had the patience to sit in one place long enough to take it anywhere. The medium that has always intrigued me however is sculpture; particularly sculptures relating to the western U.S. (i.e., the Old West). It sure seems like it would take an eternity to perfect the ability to create a high-quality sculpture.

They find me. I suspect that about 90% of the time I venture out to a specific site with the intent of capturing a certain shot, only to find something much more interesting, that ends up as the finished product. New York City is totally that way — everything is in constant motion and moving so fast that at times you simply close your eyes and press the shutter button as fast as you can.

Based on my limited understanding, it sure seems as though it would be difficult to chuck it all and be as successful as some of the folks who I look up to. Most successful professional photographers seem to have built a strong brand over many years. Feels like you need to get in early and work it really hard for an extended period. The other observation I have is that there are a multitude of extremely talented amateur and semi-professional photographers in every region of the world today, so there is a great deal of competition. To your final question, I’d certainly encourage people in corporate roles to expand their artistic talents on the side. I believe many folks are already doing that — I know a number of individuals who actively pursue artistic pursuits.

My wife and I have 2 boys, who are a bit older now but we still encourage them to investigate their artistic talents. Our eldest son showed some talent early on but has not yet decided to devote much time to it. Long story but, to this day, one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen is something he did when he was 10 or 11 years old. It was a huge multi-colored chalk drawing created over the course of an afternoon in the driveway of our home in Colorado — you know, “sidewalk chalk”. It was of picture of a popular superhero and it covered the entire driveway yet was to scale. Not sure how he did it. We intended to get more photos of his big project but our lawn’s automatic sprinkler system kicked in and washed away a good portion of his work.

I’ve really enjoyed being part of some high-quality corporate teams. Have had a chance to sort of learn something new every day and obtain a fairly strategic view of what makes great companies tick. Don’t really feel like I’ve missed out on much, so I’d have to agree that it was preferable for me to try have another career first.

Time. That is, carving out time to capture quality photos when the exterior light is best. I think every photographer struggles in their pursuit of good light every day.

There are many, including a few friends who have been gracious enough to teach me their techniques. A couple of well-known photographers that I’d like to meet someday include Jim Brandenburg (who like me resides in Minnesota) and Art Wolfe.

Take an incremental approach to reaching your desired, end state. Seems that some people never take the first step toward something big, because of the perceived mountain of work required to cross the finish line. Tackling big goals a step at a time never fails.

Two locations: Colorado and New York City. The former because of the pure number of nature photo opps and the latter because of the pace of metro activities and the constant opportunity for a unique photo.

Carmel, California

70’s & 80’s rock and comtemporary country / christian

"Charles Goodnight: Father of the Texas Panhandle" (hey, it is an exciting topic to me). Favorite novel of all time is "Lonesome Dove".

Favorite movie of all time is "Saving Private Ryan"

General Manager of a Major League Baseball Team

Delegate to the U.N.

Wish I would have realized 10 years ago how short life really is.

A shot of a dark horse walking through a field of white snow

Who is your best friend? (Answer = my wife Annette)