Instructor Bios
Ralph Clevenger
Ralph Clevenger grew up on the coast of North Africa and began diving in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea at the age of 7 with his father. He eventually went on to study zoology at San Diego State University and worked as a diver/biologist for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California before attending the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. He holds a BS degree in zoology and a BA degree in photography.
Ralph has followed his passion for the natural world by specializing in location photography and video projects of eco-travel, environmental portraits, natural landscapes, wildlife and undersea subjects. He teaches courses at Brooks Institute in Stock Photography, Video Production, Natural History Photography, and Undersea Photography. Ralph is the author of Photographing Nature, published by New Riders.
Ralph has traveled throughout the world on assignment including Australia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, Central America, Brasil, Mexico, Chile, Ireland, Antarctica, Alaska and six countries in Africa. His clients include the Monterey Bay Aquarium, California State Parks, MacGillivray-Freeman Films, Phillips Interactive Media, Fox Sports Network, Santa Barbara Zoo, The Nature Conservancy, Denali National Park Wilderness Center, the National Park Service and the National Marine Sanctuary. His publication credits include; Audubon, Aqua, Islands, Oceans, Outside, Orion Nature Quarterly, National Geographic, National Geographic Kids, National Geographic Traveler, Popular Photography, Nature’s Best, Terre Sauvage, National Geographic Books, Smithsonian Books, Sierra Club Books, and other national and international publications. Ralph’s stock images are represented worldwide by Corbis Images.
Farrah Braniff
Farrah Braniff is a Houston based photographer, specializing in contemporary portraits of babies, children and families. She operates a high-end, retail studio and has been recognized for her unique style of marketing and design. Farrah’s photographs have been accepted into the loan collection of the Professional Photographers of America and have been highlighted in the Professional Photographers of America Magazine. Before opening her studio, Farrah taught photography at multiple educational institutions including her alma mater, the Grammy Award winning High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She loves old cameras, cowboy boots and tattoos. When she’s not chasing kids around the studio or teaching, she’s at home with her husband and their three little rugrats.
Christopher Broughton
Christopher Broughton has been a faculty member of Brooks Institute since 1996. Prior to becoming a full time faculty member he served as Director of Laboratory Operations while completing his Masters of Science degree at Brooks Institute. He served as faculty for University of Pittsburgh’s “Semester of Sea” program in 1996. He has authored articles in Petersen’s Photographic, Outdoor Photographer, PC Photo, and Studio Photographer and Design Magazines. Broughton has been a featured lecturer for Hasselbald USA and Eastman Kodak. Black and white photography is exhibited and represented by Jeannie Denholm of “Art Matters” in Long Beach, CA, Robin Fold of The Golden Orb, CA, The Griffin Gallery in Venice Beach, CA, and the Silver Light Gallery in Carmel, CA. BS, MS, professional photography, Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, CA.
Diana Markosian
Diana Markosian is a documentary photographer working out of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Her interest in the aftermath of war has taken her from the remote mountains of Dagestan, to the ancient Silk Road in Tajikistan and overland to perilous landscape of Afghanistan. Markosian’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Time.com, Foreign Policy, Marie Claire Magazine, Foto8 Magazine, The London Times, Boston Globe, Human Rights Watch, amongst others. She holds a masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
David Hessemer
David Hessemer graduated from Brooks Institute in 1980, following graduation he then moved to Portland Oregon and opened a commercial photo studio where Nike was his main client for over 15 years. In 1999, David moved to Maui and started a destination wedding company and shot over 1500 weddings on the beaches of Hawaii. He and his wife recently relocated back to Southern California. David has also been involved with humanitarian organizations where he has been assigned to El Salvador, Mexico, India, Uzbekistan, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Frederick Van Johnson
The entrepreneurial and creative spirit struck Frederick early in life. In addition to creating several childhood business schemes, he desired to combine technology and art, which was possible with computers becoming powerful. In pre-Photoshop times, Frederick thought it logical to learn computer programming in order to make pictures on a computer.
Frederick served as a Combat Photographer in the United States Air Force for 8 years, quickly realizing that because of the quickening pace of digital imaging technology, his dream of creating art on a computer was within reach. He was transferred to Vandenberg AFB in CA, where he was responsible for photographing everything from standard portraits to space launches. During that time, he also attended the UC at Santa Barbara and studied business, marketing, and design. After the military, Frederick accepted a job as Chief Multimedia Producer at the San Jose Mercury News. Soon after, he was contacted by Yahoo! where he worked first as a Product Manager for Yahoo! Frederick has also worked for Adobe, Apple, and AOL before launching into his personal photography and marketing career with MediaBytes! and the This Week in Photo podcast.
Just Loomis
Photographer Just Loomis lives in Los Angeles. He has studied in Nevada and Pasadena, CA. Just had the opportunity to be assistant to famed photographer Helmut Newton from 1980 on. He went on to be a fashion photographer in Milan in the 1980s where he found great success. He was nominated for a Grammy for the cover of Aha’s album, Hunting High and Low. From 1985–1997 Just served as fashion photographer in New York for Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times Magazine. Since then he has been a portrait and documentary photographer. Just has produced works for Dreamworks and Warner Brothers Records and has exhibitions in Santa Monica, New York, Berlin, Paris, and Oslo.
Gary Moss
Gary Moss is a commercial, advertising and editorial photographer based in Los Angeles, California. He’s a location shooter of food, travel and real people. He has amassed a solid reputation and a prolific body of work from his 25-years in the business, specializing in travel, food, celebrity portraits, advertising and editorial photography. His work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Cigar Aficionado, Coastal Living, Conde Nast Traveler, Family Fun, LA Times Magazine, Men’s Health, Nat’l Geographic Traveler, Newsweek, NY Times Magazine, Outside, Rolling Stone, Sunset, and Time, to name a few. In addition to his professional work, he is currently photo editor for the Southern California lifestyle publication 805 Living magazine.
Gary also owns the Camera Whisperer photographic workshops and seminars. His passion is to teach the pro-sumer the correct way to shoot pictures. When he’s not shooting, he enjoys traveling with his family, skiing, scuba diving, and farming. He’s a sucker for a great swap meet.
Alison Nigh
Alison Nigh produced and directed the 1986 Academy Award Nominated documentary, DEBONAIR DANCERS, narrated by Jack Lemmon. She earned her MFA as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute. Her films have won various industry awards and been broadcast on the A&E cable channel as well as Showtime and PBS. She is an honor graduate from Brooks Institute, receiving a B.A. in Motion Picture Production. She has directed for Disney Educational Films and her screenwriting credits include “Out There” (co-writer) which stars Billy Campbell with Billy Bob Thornton and Rod Steiger, and “Noone Hour”, commissioned by Disney/Hollywood Pictures. Nigh has served as director, acting coach, and guest playwright production dramaturge for theatrical productions. Currently, she is Director, Co-Writer, and Co-Producer for Fun in a Kilt productions, a web series. Nigh has taught in the Film Department at Brooks Institute since 1996.
Chuck Place
Chuck Place has worked as an editorial photographer for thirty years. His degree is in biology, but his passion is photography. His subjects have changed, from large format landscapes, to sailing, and finally travel and lifestyle, but his fascination with images has never wavered. His assignment clients range from National Geographic Traveler, Sunset, Islands, Time Magazines and Smithsonian Books to Tamron Lenses, Timberline Clothes and IBM. Chuck is the sole photographer of six books, has written and illustrated articles for such magazines as Outdoor Photographer, and his work has earned recognition from the New York Art Directors Club, the Western Art Directors Club and Art Direction Magazine. Chuck Place now teaches fulltime at the prestigious Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California, while still shooting assignment work for such clients as United Airlines, Disney, Westways and Sea Ray Living Magazines.
Paul Thompson
Learn from Master/Craftsman Paul Thompson. He has been photographing weddings for over 30 years and has taught in the United States and internationally. He was selected by Kodak and featured on their “Image is Everything” video and their “Business and Marketing Practices, Portraits of Success” which were sold worldwide. Paul has been a platform speaker at many conventions and seminars. He also developed a three volume teaching video which focused on how to photograph a wedding.
David H. Wells
David H. Wells is an editorial photographer with Aurora Photos www.auroraphotos.com. He began his photography career at a small newspaper in southern California, then he worked as a photographer for the Los Angeles Times. He specializes in intercultural communications and the use of light and shadow to enhance visual narratives. David has worked on assignment for publications like the New York Times Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine and Saudi Aramco World, who have published his in-depth photo-essays. He has received many grants enabling him to produce powerful photo-essays on important topics, from the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island State Arts Councils as well as the MacArthur Foundation. He also earned a Nikon/National Press Photographers’ Association Documentary Sabbatical Grant, and two Fulbright Fellowships. Portfolios of his photography have been published in American Photographer, Camera Arts, Camera and Darkroom, Communication Arts Photography Annual, Nikon World and Photo District News. See his work at: http://www.davidhwells.com/. Besides his editorial photography, David was featured in Photo District News as one of “The Best Workshop Instructors” http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Workshops He is on the faculty of the International Center of Photography in NYC and has taught at the Maine Media Workshops, Objectifs (Singapore,) and the Centro de la Imagen (Mexico City.) As an Olympus Visionary, Wells has been contracted by the camera company to produce images and provide feedback on new product lines. See his educational web site, “the Wells Point” at http://www.thewellspoint.com. A graduate of Pitzer College of the Claremont colleges (CA,) David now lives in Providence, R.I. with his wife (and motorcycle.)
Jim DiVitale
Jim DiVitale has been an Atlanta commercial advertising photographer and instructor for over 30 years specializing in computer photo illustration. He is a PPA Master Photographer, Master of Electronic Imaging, Photographic Craftsman, Fellow of the American Society of Photographers, X-Rite Coloratti, Team Nik and OnOne Master, and a Canon “Explorer of Light.” Jim also serves as Director of Education for the Digital Imaging Institute for Science and Medicine and has lectured on digital photography before audiences at Photoshop World, Imaging USA, Seybold, Photo Plus Expo, MAC Design, HOW Design, Photo Fusion, APA, ASMP, WPPI, SWPP and World Council of Professional Photographers. He has made presentations to students and faculty at art schools worldwide, including Brooks Institute, San Francisco’s Academy of Art, and Ringling College of Art and Design. View Jim’s portfolio and digital imaging Blog at: http://DiVitalePhotography.com
Helene Glassman
Helene Glassman is an award winning photographer and business woman from Santa Barbara, California. She is a PPA Certified Professional Photographer, a PPA Master Photographer, a Photographic Craftsman and an instructor for National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Helene served five years on the board of governors of the American Society of Photographers. Her company, Imagery Photography, has been a well-respected studio in Santa Barbara, California since 1982. She has been teaching photography and creativity for over seventeen years.
Educated in music and art with a Bachelors Degree from the University of Memphis, Helene also earned a degree in photography from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. Her creativity has been rounded out with a Master’s degree in communications also from the University of Memphis. Skills perfected in her portrait and events studio enhance her fine art images creating the thread that runs through her work: Capturing everyday life as she sees it. Visit her website at: http://imagerybyhelene.com.