Juan A. Pons
Juan A. Pons was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the age of sixteen, Juan began attending high school at Chapel Hill-Chauncey Hall in Waltham, Massachusetts. The school had an excellent photography program lead by an inspiring teacher, Alice Solorow, and it was here that Juan's interest in photography began. Juan's studies focused on the essentials of photography such as light, composition, and developing an artistic eye. Juan concentrated on black and white photography in high school, developing his own film and processing his own prints.
Upon graduating from high school, Juan attended Clark University where he continued to pursue his interests in photography and gain experience working with the media. Juan worked as student photographer for the university's communications department and also took on occasional photo work for the university newspaper and yearbook. In addition, he helped develop photo portfolios for several aspiring models/actresses.
Following his four years in college, Juan's photography pursuits yielded to his professional career demands and he was not able to dedicate time to developing his skill. Juan has led a very successful career as a computer engineer specializing in scalable, high performing, and secure systems design for over 14 years. He has held various positions including Director of IS, Senior Systems Engineer, Chief Systems Architect, and most recently Vice-President of Development for a mobile applications development company. After several years, Juan picked up photography with renewed vigor, this time using color slide film for its color richness and ease of use. Juan continued to learn about the artistic and technical aspects of the craft and, as a lifelong nature enthusiast, Juan's photography subjects became focused on nature and wildlife.
Soon after rekindling his interest in photography, Juan converted to digital equipment due to the tremendous advantages he feels digital technology offers. Digital equipment allows Juan to have the same control over his images as he once had when he developed and printed his own black and white images. While Juan now uses digital photography technology exclusively, his images are unaltered and present subjects as they appear in nature. Juan has been recognized for the considerable skill he has developed in digital photography and now runs a business offering services to other photographers in the early stages of using digital photography technology.
As a nature and wildlife photographer, Juan is a strong supporter of wildlife and natural habitat conservation and is a member of several conservation organizations. Though private individuals purchase photos directly from him, Juan donates his images to non-profit organizations with nature and wildlife preservation missions.
Juan, his wife Abby, and their son Nathaniel live in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Although much of his photography is focused on native wildlife in North Carolina, Juan and his family also travel frequently to other regions of interest, such as Puerto Rico, New England, and the Southwestern states. Juan never ceases to be amazed by the natural subjects he photographs and hopes that sharing his photographs will inspire others to appreciate and respect natural life.
Juan's work has been featured on numerous publications, including: Sierra Magazine, Nature Conservancy, Audubon Magazine, Audubon North Carolina, Wildlife in North Carolina, The Independent, and others.
Juan has recently launched The Digital Photo Experience Website and Podcast, check it out for some great photography related information and tips. http://dpexperience.com
You can also follow Juan on twitter for workshop announcements and useful photography information: http://twitter.com/jpons
George Wuerthner
George grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He had an early love for the outdoors and quickly became a naturalist interested in all aspects of nature.
As an undergraduate student, George studied a wide variety of courses, and eventually obtained degrees in liberal arts, botany and wildlife biology. He went on to graduate school at three different universities. First, he attended Montana State University in Bozeman Montana studying Range Science, then he moved to California where he entered the University of California, Santa Cruz and obtained a graduate degree in Science Communication, and last he attended the University of Oregon where he was enrolled in a graduate program in Geography.
During his undergraduate and graduate school days, George worked as a wilderness guide and instructor for the University of Montana Outdoor Program, river ranger/biologist on the Fortymile River in Alaska, a backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic National Park, a surveyor for the BLM in Alaska, a botanist/biologist for the BLM in Idaho, and a junior high school teacher in California. He also regularly guided wilderness trips in the Rockies and Alaska.
In addition, Wuerthner has taught ecology for a number of universities, as well as led many field classes in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. He is an expert on the park's natural history, wildlife, and conservation history. He has lived/worked in the Yellowstone area for several decades and knows the park well.
He is the author of 34 books on natural history, and ecology including a number of large format coffee table book, and has authored two books on Yellowstone's natural history. He has more than 250,000 images in his stock files, which includes both 35 mm and 4 x 5 images. He is primarily a landscape photographer.
In the research and writing of a number of books on mountain ranges, wilderness areas and parks, George has visited more mountain ranges in the West than most--having explored hundreds of ranges from New Mexico to Alaska. He has also visited more than 350 wilderness areas, and hundreds of national parks.
As a former resident of Montana by Yellowstone National Park, George is intimately acquainted with the park and has nearly 10,000 images from the park alone, plus is extremely knowledgeable about the park's natural history
You can find out more about George and see more of his images at his website http://www.wuerthnerphotography.com