Photographing Slot Canyons
Joe Berardi, Photographer Photography is my second career after almost 24 years in Electronic Engineering. I moved to Arizona in 1975 to continue my college education at Arizona State University. Being raised in Rochester, NY the home of Eastman Kodak, I was exposed to photography at an early age and wanted to take my own photographs. I purchased my first camera by age 13 using my newspaper earnings. I developed my first roll of B&W; film by age 14 when I purchased an old 35mm SLR camera my freshman year in high school. During my freshman year I learned the fundamentals of photography and how to develop film and make prints. Growing up, I had a passion for making things and photography fit right in with this passion. My first photographs were of my hobbies; slot cars, model rockets, mini-bikes and boys being boys such as lifting weights. My later teenage years, I captured my skiing adventures, cars and motorcycle road trips.  For my first career I followed my Dad into electronics. During my high school years I helped Dad repair and carry those huge TV consoles. I first went to a local community college for Electronic Technology. One of the professors noticed my enthusiasm for building electronic circuits in the lab and pushed me to apply to Arizona State University College of Engineering. I transferred to Arizona State University in 1975 and it took me another four years to graduate with a BS degree. I started my EE career as an intern at a small startup company in Scottsdale Arizona and continued at several high tech companies. A major event in 1994 reminded me how precious life was and my previous passion for the outdoors and photography. I decided to return to my boyhood dream of photographing the world around me. At the end of 2001, my wife and I moved from the big city to little town Arizona. I started to seriously build a portfolio in 2003 with the intention of capturing the Southwest in photography. The summer of 2004 we started selling photographs at Art Shows throughout Arizona and we continue today. I greatly enjoy photographing the outdoors on those solitude hikes and enjoy seeing nature's art revealed each season. Although I started my professional portfolio in 2003 with 35mm film, I fully embraced digital photography because of my EE background and had been using a digital camera since 1996. By 2004, the performance of digital photography was on par with 35mm film and I purchased a Canon EOS DSLR camera and stop shooting film.