Expert Ron Zimmerman of Ron Zimmerman Photography in Plymouth, Indiana
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Ron Zimmerman Expert PageANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight is brought to you by morephotos.com helping professional photographers with all their internet needs. Welcome to the VTalk Radio Photographer Spotlight.
DAMIEN: Good afternoon and welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. I'm Damien Allen, and we are at the Great Lakes Institute of Photography Show at Northwestern Michigan College, and today we have Mr. Ron Zimmerman of Ron Zimmerman Photography. Good afternoon, how are you doing, Ron?
RON: Fine. How are you doing, Damien?
DAMIEN: Not too bad. Thanks for joining us today.
RON: Thanks for having me.
DAMIEN: You are a natural history photographer. How does one become involved in being...that's a very finite niche.
RON: It is and there's so many photographers in this world today that are doing weddings and portraits and all these other things like this, and I wanted to do something that was a little bit different, because I don't have that kind of temperament. I don't want to be doing the same thing day in and day out. I want to do something different, and I love to teach. I really get excited when people understand what I'm trying to teach them. When it starts becoming clear; clicking in their heads. Then they're excited, and I get excited, and I enjoy being outdoors. I enjoy traveling so I just kind of mixed the art of traveling with the art of photography and came up with what I do and that's teaching photographic workshops worldwide.
DAMIEN: Now as a natural history photographer what would your main subjects be when you're doing a shoot?
RON: Well I came up with the word natural history photographer, because every moment that we're doing something it creates some kind of history and so anything is natural history photography if there's a garbage can in the right light and its' photographicable, we'll do that. We'll photograph that. I lead small groups of ten people and less out to locations ten to fifteen days, and we teach them how to use their camera and how to photograph subjects that excite them. Whether it be bears in Alaska or Ireland where we do the old castles and the old abbys or something like that. Anything that is happening at this moment. If we see raindrops hitting on windows that are the right patterns and things we'll photograph that. Anything that is happening right now is what we'll do.
DAMIEN: Ok, so the end result is you get photos of just about anything one can imagine. Where do these photos go from there?
RON: That's a good question. I am represented in a lot of galleries. I sell my work in galleries all over the place. I sell into my local home town, of course, restaurants, in beauty shops, anywhere that if I go into a doctor's office being built, and I'll walk in and sell them images of different places. I'll find out how they want to decorate it, and I'll rent that product to them. I'll rent them stuff to go in there and say I'll put these images in, decorate your office and they'll all be for sale, and in 6 months, I'll change out and put new images in. So I use them selling in furniture stores. I have images selling all over the place. Of course, then I get paid to teach. Then I also, obviously, get paid to teach these workshops and teach people how to go about finding their sales and their niche to what they want to photograph and what they want to do. Basically it's fine art photography. It's a way of expressing myself and teaching people how to express themselves in their imagery so that they can do the work that they want to do not be forced to do a wedding if that's not what they want to make a living at, and that's how I...I don't want to photograph brides. I want to photograph what I want to photograph, and that's how I came up with this.
DAMIEN: In deed. I understand you've been in some magazines and won some awards. Want to tell us a little bit about it?
RON: I've been published in 37 different magazines over the years, different times, different things. I don't submit a lot of work to magazines so I just don't hit that market heavily, but I've been published in 37 magazines. I just was named as one of the top 100 photographers in the world by Hausablaud. I've received one of their Master's Certificates. I've won several awards in state competitions and national competitions over the years, and a lot of different awards at art shows. I do individual art shows sometimes, especially in the state of Michigan. I do a lot of art shows in the state of Michigan. They seem to like the work I do. So I don't know how many awards, but they're numerous.
DAMIEN: How long have you been a photographer?
RON: Twenty-five years.
DAMIEN: Twenty-five years. So you've seen the change from film to digital? Are you still shooting film at all?
RON: I shoot film very heavily.
DAMIEN: Really?
RON: Absolutely. I'm a Hausablaud shooter, obviously, and Hausablaud is the first thing I pack before I go anywhere. I will take it before I take any digital camera. Film still has a feel and a look that's different than what the digital has, and the digital is phenomenal. The digital world is absolutely out of this world and the things you can do with it in Photoshop, I just can't believe. But I still have that love affair with film. I still enjoy and get passionate about opening up that box of transparencies that come in and put on the light table, and I still love doing that. As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of I think I'm going to be 4" x 5", because I still enjoy shooting film so much I'm going to move into a 4" x5".
DAMIEN: I'm an analog person with digital myself. I still prefer to tape to the digital medium when it comes to recording.
RON: One's not better than the other, but the feel that I get from it is what I like, and so it's a personal taste. You know there's guys here at this workshop this weekend that absolutely are nothing but digital photographers...they're phenomenal. And some of the images that I see done digitally it's another talent, but I have a saying...I coined a saying that I'm a photographer, I'm not a computerographer. So I spend my time trying to capture the image in the camera versus in the computer.
DAMIEN: In deed. Have the editing work at the end...get the shot you want in the first place.
RON: Right. I want to spend my time behind the camera, not in the computer, and I'm not saying there's something wrong with that. It's just that's my personal taste. I prefer to be behind the camera, and I don't enjoy the end work of the computer.
DAMIEN: In deed. Is there someplace people can go to view your work?
RON: They can. They can go on my website which is www.ronzimmerman.com. It is under construction. We are working on it. More Photos is doing a great job in helping me get it set the way I want to get it going, but I'm going to be on the road for the next 3 weeks traveling so when I get back, hopefully, we'll get that finished up, but go look at where we're at right now at www.ronzimmerman.com. They can email me at ron@ronzimmerman.com or they can call me at (574) 936-9040. Somebody is always there to answer the phone, and if I'm not there, my secretary is there trying to make appointments or whatever needs to be done and talk with whoever needs to talk about any trips or anything we've got going or speaking. I speak at different events and things like that so. I'm easy to find.
DAMIEN: Thank you very much for spending time with us today, Ron.
RON: Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.
DAMIEN: We've have been speaking with Ron Zimmerman, Plymouth, Indiana, natural history photographer, award winning photographer at the Great Lakes Institute of Photography Show at Northwestern Michigan College. I'm Damien Allen. You've been listening to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Have a great afternoon.
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