My interest in photography began at a young age. I remember sitting in a theater waiting for the show to start while I asked my Dad what each button, switch, and dial on his Pentax ME Super did. I was maybe 10 or so at the time. In high school I decided I wanted to be a photographer. That’s also when I took an interest in both nature photography as well as large format cameras. A few years later I purchased a beautiful Zone VI 4×5 camera made of cherry wood, brand new, from Vermont. Oh how I wish every photographer could experience composition on a ground glass. Nothing else compares.
Over the years I’ve worked full time in the photo specialty industry, not as a photographer, but rather on the business side (long story). Today I’m a full time product developer & designer. I design, test, and make many types of camera accessories from lights to tripods, filters to batteries, bags, memory cards, and much more. The work takes me abroad to a variety of foreign lands. It pays the bills, but my true passion is fine art nature photography. It always has been.
I’m fortunate to live in beautiful northeast Ohio right on the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. While I hike and explore this area for most of my photography, I also travel extensively around the USA with my family, often towing our camper “Lewis”. We hike and we are backpackers. I consider myself a disciple of John Muir. I greatly admire the work of Ansel Adams, Clyde Butcher, Jim Zuckerman, and Alex Burke.
My family is my greatest blessing and I thank God for them every day. My beautiful wife Shelly is a Spanish teacher. My three adult sons never cease to amaze me. Vince, Doug, and Eddie are incredible human beings who make the world a better place every day.
Yes, I have lived the transition of film to digital. And I enjoy both. My main camera is a Cambo Actus, which is an ingenious product that blends the movements of a technical camera with the benefits of digital. I use a Fuji GFX50S as the imaging sensor on the back of my Actus. I own a variety of lenses including: Mamiya 35mm f3.5 645 Sekor C N, Mamiya G 50mm f4, Actar 60mm f4, Pentax 75mm f2.8 645 FA, Actar 80mm f4, Rodenstock Apo-Rodagon N 105mm f4, Schneider 120mm f5.6 Makro-Symmar HM, Fuji 125mm f5.6 CM-W, Pentax 150mm f3.5 645 A, and Pentax 200mm f4 645 A. My main tripod is a 3-section Berlebach (maple wood) with a geared head on top. I use a variety of ProMaster and Lee filters too.
My philosophy in photography is to “get it right in the camera” and do as little post production editing as possible. My reasoning is simple. I have lived through a career of staring at a computer screen for way too many hours a day. I would rather spend as much time behind the camera as possible and as little time in front of a screen as I can.
Publishing the location of a photo is not important to me. Rather, I wish the piece can allow the viewer’s imagination to run wild and fantasize. I hope, in time, my work can inspire others to step outside, enjoy the natural world while working to preserve it, and to explore wild lands on their own. There is beauty everywhere. The magnificence of a single flower can offer as much to behold as a vast landscape if we just stop and take a look.
Paul Orzel
Paul Orzel photography 