DWF – Let’s start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.

RAY -Born and raised in San Mateo and Santa Clara, California. Went to San Jose State, where I was first a journalism major, then a biochemistry major. Graduated with a BS in Microbiology. Moved to Modesto, CA 1975. Worked for many years as a Medical Laboratory Technologist in hospital and private labs. Started my business part time in 1984. It became a full time business in 1990, although I worked part time in the lab until 2001. Married in 1977 to Gloria, an RN, have two daughters. One is doing her residency in pediatrics in San Diego and the other manages a Starbucks in LA.

DWF – How did you become a wedding photographer?

RAY - Photography was a hobby since I was a kid. I built my own darkroom in the attic when I was 15. But I never seriously considered it as a possible career because I did so well in science. Photography fell by the wayside while I attended college and internship. Then a trip to Yosemite began an interest in astronomy. After building my own backyard observatory, I decided I needed a way to photograph what I was seeing. So I built another darkroom and started photographing again.

Because I now had a great camera (Olympus OM-1) I started taking it with me on backpacking and cross-country ski trips. That led to reading every photography book I could lay my hands on, and studying man of the great photographers. I bought a 4×5 camera and did my Ansel Adams thing. When I started my business, I needed more room, so we put an addition onto the house, which included my 3rd darkroom. In 1986 we moved 4 blocks to a much larger home and devote the upper floors to the studio and built my 4th darkroom in the garage.

Eventually I burned out working in the lab. Few people know of the kind of stress you can have in that job. I started looking for another career, and the only one that interested me was photography. I knew I couldn’t make a living as a landscape photographer, so I started going to photography schools and learning all I could about photographing people. I’ve done all kinds of photography, but eventually I specialized in weddings, as I thought I could offer something others in my area were not and I enjoyed being a pioneer. In 1992 I bought my first scanner which came with Photoshop 2.5 and started integrating digital products. In August of 2000 I joined a forum of photographers who were trying to figure out how to integrate digital cameras into their businesses. The forum was quite different in those days, as no one was really an expert. Each of us came from different areas and had different specialties that we shared.

DWF- Who or what inspires you as an artist?

RAY - I have to admit, I don’t look outside the professional arena that much anymore, I just don’t have time. I still enjoy going to art galleries when I can, but I don’t find my inspiration there. I think I find inspiration from the YOUNGER photographers these days. The ones that want to blaze new ground and stretch the boundaries of what we call photography. Although I come from a film past and enjoyed much of it, I don’t have any feelings of nostalgia for those times. I think it is exciting to be in THESE times!

DWF- If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

RAY - I think that people who want me to photograph their weddings see that I am not interested in photographing the same wedding week after week. Although there is a common theme (it’s a wedding, after all)I try to find different ways of seeing and presenting the events of that day. Above all, I want my couples to have fun and be happy, don’t we all? But I want them to have those feelings when they look at their images, now, and 30 years from now. My clients want to be treated as unique, pretty, but unique. That extends to my senior clients as well. The have been treated as numbers by countless school photographers and they want something more. I think what they see in my work is that it isn’t all stiff posing and it isn’t just snapshots.

DWF- If you had to pick a favorite “Tool of the Trade” what would it be? and why?

RAY - You know the answer to this, it’s Photoshop. I always wanted to be an artist but I couldn’t draw or paint worth a darn. I was always frustrated that the camera saw things so literally, bound by the physics of optics and chemistry. Photoshop freed me from those constraints and allowed me to present images that were more accurate in the way that they made me feel. Photoshop is not just a digital darkroom for me, it is the conduit for my creativity. Eventually, others started asking for my advice and my help. Then people started asking me when I was coming out with a DVD. So 3 years ago I started Photoshop Fitness (photoshopfitness.com) to help other photographers learn some of the techniques I’ve accumulated over the past 14 years.

DWF – Care to share your favorite photographs?

RAY -

DWF – How about some final words to live by?

RAY - Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t worry what others think. Easily said, harder to do. But there is no forward movement, no growth, if you are content with where you are now. For years it bothered me when someone saw something I created and said “I think I prefer a straight image.” Now I just think, “how sad that you are stuck in 1950!”

Editors Note: Yes ladies this is really Ray!

Location – Modesto, CA
Business Name - Prevost Photography (weddings) Modesto PhotoWorks (seniors) Photoshop Fitness
Years in Business – 25 Years
Websites -prevostphoto.com modestophotoworks.com photoshopfitness.com
Blog - prevostphoto.com/blog/ photoshopfitness.com

Possibly Related Posts:

• One-on-One with Tara “Dixie Pixel” Kneiser
• Featured Member JB Sallee
• Featured Member Jaco Fourie
• DWF Featured Member Jay Philbrick
• Featured Member Interview with Ryan Sands