My sixty-five plus years behind the camera

I began my passion with photography when I was ten years old. By the time I entered Thomas Jefferson High School, I had become very proficient in 35 mm photography and decided to put it to use by joining the Monticello yearbook staff. I spent my first three years as a photographer and then in my senior year, as the Photography/Art Editor. Those four years provided a strong foundation in not only practical applications of photography, but advertising, marketing, copy, layout and publishing. After several years at the University of Texas, I came back to San Antonio in 1960 and began my professional business career with The Fox Company, as it was known in those days. Beginning in retail photo equipment sales, I advanced to Store Manager, then District Retail Manager, Regional Retail Manager, National Retail Operations Manager and in 1973 became Assistant Vice President of Retail Operations after I presented to The Board of Directors a major retail store expansion plan. In 1975, I became Vice President of Retail Marketing and in 1979, became President of the Retail Division and a Corporate Senior Vice President. During my tenure, the number of stores increased from 29 to almost 1,200 with annual sales in excess of $100,000,000. While at Fox, I was very fortunate to interact with key people from many of the major photographic manufacturers which gave me a keen insight into the future direction of imaging as well as access to their high-end photographic equipment. From the early 1980’s the industry began its transformation from a chemical film process to an electronic (digital) imaging process with the explosion of home computer technology, I did the same. My first computer was purchased in 1981, and in 1991, I bought my first digital camera and the very first version of the new Adobe Photoshop software.   I have been 100% digital for the last twenty years doing things with photography that no one could have conceived or believed possible, sixty-five plus years ago. My definition of photography all these years has been that “Photography is the Art and Science of Visually Capturing a Moment in Time”. Today over 2 trillion “moments in time” are captured annually in which 85% are from mobile phones, 10% from digital cameras and 5% from tablets! Film/chemical photography is virtually non-existent.