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Joseph Ellis

Visual Storyteller

 

    When I was eight years old, I got my first camera for Christmas — a treasured point-and-shoot film camera.  My favorite uncle gave me my first photo lesson the next month as he and my parents prepared to embark on a vacation flight to Bimini in the Bahamas.  Uncle Les worked as a photographer and told me to get an “establishing shot” of the terminal building with the name “Fort Lauderdale Airport,” telling passengers where they were.  He said this would establish the beginning of my vacation photo story. 

    Since that epic island holiday, I studied photography, along with film and television, at Columbia College in Chicago; and served as a staff photographer with a large nonprofit organization here in California until I got into a management position.  Photography has always been close to my heart: capturing images in God’s creation that dazzle my imagination and tell a visual story. I might be considered a photographer, but I consider myself a “visual storyteller!”

    I’ve captured images in Western and Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, North, South, and Central America, as well as in Asia over the last fifty years; and enjoy reliving the memories of photo shoots whether for family or new found friends of my visual images.

    After taking a few years off from shooting images to manage a marketing business, I recently circled back to my passion for capturing visual images that tell a story: whether of the beauty found in nature, in the faces of people, or of current events as a freelancer for several Southern California newspapers.

    Thanks for viewing my images when you drop by our Gallery in Big Bear! 

Nova Scotia Dock
Nova Scotia Light
Pecos Sunrise
Moscow Night
Kinderdijk Windmills
Maui Beach Kapalus
Holland Red Tulips
Fresh Snow
FL Beach Chairs
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