A Little Background About Your Photographer: Stan Kerns

Creating a great portrait is done by the photographer and the subject working together. It is important that you know a bit about me, and I will learn a little about you. 

I was born in Greeley, my grandmother's grandmother is thought to be the first European born in what would become Colorado. As far as education, I attended UNC where I studied history, speech, and chemistry. Then I went to law school.  I was studying biology when I discovered I really liked taking photographs. I then studied with some of the best photographers in America.

First was Ansel Adams who taught me that the image the camera captures is only the starting point for the final photograph. In portrait photography, I studied with |oe Zeltsman who was recognized as the very foundation of modern photography. l had two great pupils Monty Zucker in wedding photography, and Leon Kennimer in outdoor photography. I was lucky enough to study with both of them. I make it a point to study with someone yearly- not long ago it was the fellow who photographed Bill Gates's sister’s wedding. By now I have taken over a million photographs.

When I started, color was the new thing- and it had some problems, but let us do things we never could before. Now digital is the new thing, again at first it had some problems, but now it lets us do things that were never possible before. One thing digital allows is for anybody to take a picture that is in focus and properly exposed- this is a picture. Please don't confuse this with a true portrait. A picture looks like you take them often, but a portrait tells the viewer who you are. There is a real difference, and for the very important moments in your life creating a portrait is an important event.

Stan