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| Best of Photographers |
Jeffrey A. SCOVIL
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Jeffrey Scovil
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When I graduated high school in 1970, my father gave me my first camera - a used Pentax H1a. I brought it practically everywhere I went, photographing the other students at college and selling them the photographs. I was especially interested in photographing natural history subjects such as insects and flowers. As an anthropology/archeology major I worked on a dig in New Mexico where I was the laboratory photographer. It was my job to photograph all of the artifacts that were excavated, all the way from tiny beads to large pots. It was on the dig that I refined my scientific, photomacrographic techniques. In 1975 I decided to try my hand at photographing the minerals I had been collecting since I was eight years old. In 1990 I made the fateful decision to become a photographer of minerals and related objects.
I have no specialization within the field of minerals for photography, photographing whatever clients bring to me or whatever is new at the shows I attend. I also photograph fossils, gem stones and jewelry and related artifacts such as mining lamps, goniometers and crystal models.
All of my 35mm work is now done with a Canon F1 camera using either a 50mm or 100mm macro lens. For tungsten lights I use Lowell VIP Pro lights and fiberoptics with Kodak 64T tungsten film. For daylight, I shoot mostly with Speedotron black line strobes and Fuji Velvia film. I also shoot large format 4 x 5 inch and use a Swiss Sinar F camera with a Rodenstock 120mm Macro Sironar lens. Most of my subjects are photographed on a horizontal sheet of non-glare glass, with the colored background paper hanging down from the far edge of the glass. This creates the "floating" effect of many of my photographs. Other advantages of the technique include being able to change the background color any time I want, light the background separately and the ability to light the specimen from all angles including from below.
I work with publishers all over the United States and Europe. In the U.S.A. I am associate photographer for The Mineralogical Record and Rocks and Minerals. I am also a regular contributor to Lapidary Journal, Colored Stone and have worked with Gems & Gemology, Earth, Mineral News, Matrix and Arizona Highways. In Europe I am a regular contributor to Lapis (Germany), Le Regne Mineral (France) and have worked with Mineralienwelt (Germany), Otoczak (Poland), Revista Mineralogica Italiana (Italy), World of Stone & Mineralogical Almanac (both Russia). I have also worked with most of the major hook publishers here in the US including Prentice Hall, Houghton Miflin, Geoscience Press and Simon & Schuster. Tn Europe I have had major publications with Granit (Czech Republic), and Rebo International (Netherlands). In 1996 I published Photographing Minerals, Fossils and Lapidary Arts with Geoscience Press, the only book to be published on the subject. A number of web sites on mineralogy, gems and jewelry feature my photography.
I travel all over North America and Europe photographing for dealers, collectors, museums and at mineral shows. I also do a lot of public speaking on the topics of photography and mineralogy for mineral clubs, mineral shows and symposia. I have numerous projects in the works right now that will be using my photographs including books on the mineralogy of the states of Nevada and Michigan, two CD ROM mineral encyclopedias and a number of mineralogy and geology books. My work is on permanent display at several museums including the New York State Museum and the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum.
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| Last update 08.05.2003 |
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