David Selders

Bio

I’ve been fascinated with photography for as long as I can remember. I remember as a child watching my father with his old Nikkormat SLR and being enthralled as he turned the dials and pushed the shutter release. His love of photography was instantly passed on to me.

I received my first SLR camera as a gift when I graduated from high school. I tried to use that camera to capture what I loved in the landscapes around me. I was also thoroughly frustrated with my utter failures. Those failures are what have driven me to learn about exposure. The process of trial and error was slow, but it taught me valuable lessons.

I switched from film in early 2006 and while I do miss some of the nuances of film the transition has been a good one. It really allowed me to shorten the trial and error of learning by quite a bit. An unexpected plus of that change is the control that I have in the digital darkroom. I had no such control when I shot film. I would drop it at the lab and patiently await the results. Now I have complete control over my photographs, allowing me to process them as close to my original vision as possible.

Ansel Adams photographs have made a profound impact on my love of landscape photography. I owe this to my father as well. I loved the vastness that Ansel captured in his photographs. This spoke to my love of the outdoors and eventually led to my discovery of Galen Rowell’s photography. Galen combined what I loved about Ansel Adams work with a sense of adventure. I discovered through Galen’s photographs that I could find amazing landscapes in my own backyard.