Dennis Davis Biography

At age 9, Dennis Davis started shooting landscapes in Yosemite Valley, California with a Kodak Brownie camera, and fell in love with the ability to capture the beauty of nature and share it with family and friends. At age 19, Dennis worked as a counselor at a Yosemite summer camp, and was approached by another counselor about helping with photography duties.

“She gave me a manual Nikon camera to use, and about 50 rolls of slide film. My training period lasted about 45 seconds,” says Davis. After shooting 5 rolls, the moment of truth came during the processing in the darkroom. “I think we spent more time making out then we did processing the film. But when I saw my images in rich, spectacular color on the slides, I was hooked” Exclaimed Davis.

“My family was very poor as I was growing up, my father picked fruit and my mother ran a used clothing store, so I could not afford my own camera. While working for a doctor for $40 a month at a missionary training center in Alabama, I began praying for a camera of my own.”

Dr. Calvin Thrash approached me one day, saying “Pentax is changing from a screw mount to a bayonet mount system. My screw mount system is obsolete, and I am going to replace it with a bayonet mount camera. Would you be interested in my screw mount Pentax system” he asked?

The Pentax system had a manual SLR camera body and six lenses. “It was the answer to my prayers. I purchased several books on photography, saved my money and bought an inexpensive studio lighting system, and within a few months I was shooting photographs for brochures, album covers and book covers,” Davis continues.

“About 2 years after getting my first camera given to me, I opened a photography studio in Columbus, Georgia in a run-down building. I shot a 90 page full-color catalog the first year in business, and got the contract for it again the year after. However, there was not enough businesses and corporate headquarters in the small town of Columbus to keep an advertising photographer busy, so I opened a photography business in Denver, Colorado,” Davis explains.

“My photography business in Denver lasted about 2 years, with most of my work coming from King Sooper's grocery store chain. When King Sooper's printer moved their photography studio from Dallas to Denver, they undercut the prices of all 3 Denver photographers King Sooper's was using, and put the 3 of us out of business. After we were safely out of the way, new studio raised their prices higher than ours had been. I went back to school and got a degree in graphic design, as there was a new program called Adobe PhotoShop that I wanted to learn. “

“I worked as a graphic designer, marketing director, V.P. of an advertising agency and a Webmaster for the next 15 years or so, but there was never a year that went by that I did not have my photography published in brochures, magazines, catalogs or on websites. In fact, when I worked as the V.P. of a San Diego advertising agency, I shot most of their client's work, without being paid extra for it. “ In September, 2001 I was working as a Webmaster and Senior Graphic Designer for a software company in San Diego. Due to the dot com stock market crash, our entire marketing team was laid off. Then 9/11 happened, and over 30% of the people in the advertising field lost their jobs. No one was hiring, the average webmaster position had over 600 applicants. I went through all of my savings during the following year, and depleted all of my unemployment checks.”

“I was down to my last unemployment check, all my savings were gone, and I had no way to pay the rent. I owned a Nikon FE2 camera that I had dropped on the streets of Paris and broken the shutter so that it only worked 2/3 of the time. That camera and a single flash was all the photography gear I owned. I thought, “why not try following my heart and go back into photography? Maybe my skill at creating websites will allow me to get my work in front of people.”

“So in February 2002 I put up my first photography website, and landed a cookbook project in May that paid $15,000 and allowed me to buy a digital camera and another light. My business took off, and I was successful from the start. In spring of 2004 I put up the website LosAngelesProPhotographer.com, bought a cell phone with a Los Angeles prefix, and begin working in both LA and San Diego. In October 2004 I was getting more work and better jobs in LA then in San Diego, and I moved to Sherman Oaks. I moved my business to Long Beach in January 2006 then to downtown Los Angeles in 2008. “

"I still love photography for the same reason I did when I was 9 years old. It allows me to capture something beautiful, and share it with others."

“Although photography is my first love, I also enjoy reading, movies, travel, art, music and the outdoors. I enjoy biking, volleyball, computers, camping and dining out. I play guitar and singing for my church. I was raised a vegetarian, and have stuck to the diet most of my life. My favorite things are flowers, waterfalls, mountains and animals. I speak Spanish well, and visit Mexico several times a year. It is my wish that I may work to bring happiness to the lives of others, work to end to the war, reduce global warming and pollution, and help to preserve some of the natural beauty in this great county.“