Bio
I am a landscape, wilderness, and nature photographer based in the Rocky Mountains. I was raised outside of Denver, Colorado, and have had the bulk of my life to explore these majestic mountains and enjoy their beautiful and sometimes fearful landscapes. However, I have only recently been able to capture those landscapes at a professional level with digital photography. I dabbled in black and white landscape photography with film cameras during my teenage years, developing prints in a dark room built in the basement of my folks house, but for many years my enthusiasm for photography was sidelined. Now, I have a renewed enthusiasm, and focus most of my photography on the Rocky Mountains from Mexico up to Wyoming and the canyon lands of Arizona and Utah. These parts of the country, admittedly, are heavily photographed due to their differing landscapes, unique features, and sheer beauty, and I include some well known locations in my portfolio, such as, Maroon Bells, Aspens over Kebler Pass, and Slot Canyon. Even though these photographs have been shot by many before me, they still represent an exciting opportunity for the photographer to shoot, technically speaking, and also present the opportunity to represent the iconic images through the photographer's own vision. I hope my images of these iconic landscapes is pleasing to you and adds some familiarity while browsing my less iconic images.
My journey in photography has been shorter than I would have liked. Though I started my interest as a teenager, I was distracted for several years while I got a bachelors degree at the University of Colorado, a medical degree at Howard University College of Medicine, and completed a residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Kansas. I have found with photography, my left brain enjoys the technical aspects as much as my right brain enjoys the artistic aspect. Now, as a practicing Board Certified Anesthesiologist, I'm only able to spend my spare time and vacations hauling around my digital camera in pursuit of my passion for photography. Balancing a full time practice in medicine, undertaking professional photography, and raising a family is quite a challenge. The time constraints keep getting tighter and tighter. I believe, however, that I have a wonderful story to tell using my camera and so I make the time and I do the research to try to maximize that time I make. I have a unique background for a self taught photographer. In my medical training, I have had the opportunity to observe and study the infinitely complex systems in our bodies right down to the microscopic level. As a landscape photographer, I have "studied" with my camera the complex systems of great and vast landscapes from mountains to galaxies. I have submerged myself in these environments often hiking in miles, getting up early, staying out late, and waiting around in extreme temperatures to capture the right shot. What I find to be a common theme between medicine and nature is that we are both fearfully and wonderfully made from the smallest detail to the largest. The whole universe has been fearfully and wonderfully made. There are so many natural examples of this, such as the spring when delicate flowers bloom all the way to the freezing heavy snow that falls in the mid winter and when the sun and moon keep rising and setting to cast different lighting across the land. My hope and ambition as a landscape photographer mirrors some of my ambitions as a doctor, to preserve the beauty of life and to share that beauty with others. I hope you enjoy this site and enjoy these photographs because I believe life really is beautiful. We are surrounded by beauty even when we don't see it, and admittedly, challenges we face every day make it hard to see or appreciate this beauty. Let these photographs remind you that the world is an incredible creation with purpose and meaning. As I experience these things I find myself asking, is it really all just by chance, as some of the scientific texts tell us. The more I study it, and I have study many scientific texts, the more I ironically find myself believing the opposite. More and more I find myself thinking that the most intuitive answer comes from the biblical Jeremiah, who tells us, "it is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens."
Post-Processing Ethics
During my work flow, I try to get the image perfect in the camera so that I can do as little post processing as possible. I always process raw files. I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III and several different canon lenses, the most commonly being the 24-105mm L series lens. I will frequently use graduated and uniform neutral density filters in the field to get the exposure correct on dramatically different lighting, as is the case with dark land vs. bright sky, or when blurring waterscapes. I will sometimes use polarizing filters as well. These filters will frequently help the camera to see what my eye is seeing. The camera has a remarkably lower ability compared to the human eye to capture different light exposures and these types of filters correct that to a certain extent. I do, on very special circumstances, use multiple exposures to accomplish this same task, though infrequently. My primary tools for post processing include Adobe software and Google NIK software. I will further adjust tones and exposure to try to accomplish creating a photograph that mimics what I saw with my own eyes at the time of capture. This sometimes involves adding contrast and saturating colors. At no point in any of my photographs do I merge different images, remove parts of my images or add new parts to my images. I do not merge differing backgrounds with differing foregrounds. Almost all of my images are single shots (exceptions being very rare HDR images or stitched shots for some panoramics due to the scene being larger than the camera can capture). My goal in my photography is to replicate what my eyes were seeing at the time of capture, and recreate the feeling I felt standing there, and these post processing techniques accomplish that task. Without these types of processing techniques, the cameras technology, in my opinion, can rarely accomplish this on its own. Of course, I do edit out dust and water spots, decrease camera noise, and sharpen when appropriate in able to provide crisp, flawless, beautiful picture to share with you..
Printing and Presentation
Any prints made of these photos are carefully matched to my calibrated NEC monitor. I use a variety of papers for prints and a Canon IPF prograf 6400 pigmented inkjet with a width of 24" by however long the picture is. Due to variation in different monitors (and different brains), prints may not print exactly as seen on the viewers monitor. I have spent many hours trying to get my monitor colors and print colors perfectly matched. Obviously, final images are widely effected by multiple factors including presentation, lighting, and positioning to say the least.
Thank you for visiting this site, though time intensive, I have enjoyed making it and truly hope you have enjoyed viewing it. Your feedback is always welcomed and appreciated. In all practices, continuing education and personal development are crucial to reaching your highest potential. Since this site is competing with time at my medical practice and family, both of which I adore, I may take a few days to get back to any inquiries, critiques, questions, or comments you may have. Please be patient with me.
God bless you...
Reuben Smits
