Merlin Owens
Artist’s bio
I am a self-taught photographer with more than 40 years of experience in landscape and wildlife photography. My fascination with photography started as a teenager when I received my first camera, a Brownie Hawkeye. As time progressed, I pursued photography using a Super 8 film camera. After that phase, I purchased my first 35mm film camera and started photographing landscapes. Then along came digital cameras which I thought would never exceed the quality of film. However, I purchased my first digital 10-megapixel camera and dabbled in portrait and wedding photography where I quickly learned that my real desire was landscape photography. It wasn’t long before I realized digital was the future.
As photography started out as a hobby, my career job was working in the computer field as a Software Engineer, Instructor, and then Supervisor of a graphics department for a company that sold newspaper computer equipment. During my tenor in the graphics department, I learned Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and how to scan photos increasing my photographic/graphics knowledge. In the past 40 plus years I have visited 17 national parks, 10 national monuments, and 13 countries filming landscapes and wildlife.
During most of my time in the computer field, I worked in the Thousand Oaks area of California. My job entailed traveling throughout the U.S. and in doing so allowed me opportunities to broaden my photography experience. On weekends and vacations, I spent a lot of time photographing landscapes in California, Arizona, and Utah
After retirement, we moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where I initially photographed historical events of South Carolina and created DVD videos of those events. I also spent days photographing up and down the coast and mountain areas of both North and South Carolina. However, after visiting Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, I fell in love with photographing birds, so I began the long journey of teaching myself how to do just that. This provided the opportunity to publish my first book titled South Carolina Birding.
Artist’s statement
Always looking for was to improve my photography, graphics, and software program knowledge.
