Fine Art Photographer & Digital Artist
Ron’s first wet-darkroom experience was with a Kodak contact printer (metal box with a light-bulb and a switch). He was about 9 years old and living in the small farming community of Aberdeen, South Dakota. He can still vividly see, in his mind’s eye, the magic of images appearing on a blank piece of paper in the developer solution. The results were terrible (according to his rigorous standards today), but the experience stayed with Ron. About 5 years after that, Ron’s Uncle returned from the Army to Faulkton, SD with a Polaroid camera. Talk about magic; living on a farm in South Dakota, such magical technology had never been seen and or heard of! The combination of the two experiences cemented an excitement and enthusiasm in Ron that has inspired his interest in technology and photographic arts even up to today.
Aside from photography, Ron has had an interesting and unusual career in electronics. He is known and respected worldwide for his regulatory, EMC and compliance work with consumer electronics. Though his educational background is in mathematics and physics, his career has been in electronics, which started in the military. With a career that has spanned over 40 years, Ron has been fortunate to work as both an engineer and a manager for some of the big name R&D companies in the electronics world. Ron has attempted to retire three times now, and each time he gets another interesting opportunity that pulls him back into the high-tech world.
Most of Ron’s training in photography has been self-taught. He worked for several decades with traditional wet darkroom processes, 35 mm film and a large format sheet film camera. Ron was fortunate to meet and work with a very famous B&W photographer during his college years. This experience allowed him to watch, learn and absorb as masterpieces were literally created before his eyes. Through this photographer’s circle of friends, Ron was able to experience the work of many well-known B&W photographers of the 60’s.
Today Ron’s equipment is on the cutting-edge of digital photographic technology. In addition to a professional digital camera and a converted infrared digital camera, Ron uses a Gigapan robotic camera to create detailed mosaic images (average file size each over 500 gigs). He also uses various software and pieces of equipment necessary to create technically complex images, such as Star Trails Over Monument Valley, which contains over 860 images, captured over an 8 hour period, to create the final image.
Ron says of himself, “I used to be a photographer. Now I’ve combined my interests of technology and photography, and I think of myself as a Photo Artist.” Hence Brewer Photography & Art’s statement, Making Art Through Photography & Technology.
Ron has been an active member of North Coastal Art Gallery / Carlsbad Oceanside Art League since 2005, and supports COAL’s mission to promote fine art in North County San Diego.