About the Artist


	Growing up in the little coastal village of East Boothbay, immersed in the family boat building business Keith was surrounded by beautiful, professional quality photography. Few things lend themselves to more dramatic works of art than the ocean, and classic yachts. Some of his earliest memories are of grand launching parties attended by professional photographers like "Red" Boutilier, and later seeing the work of his grandfather and father in the pages of Sail and Yachting magazines. During his teen years he lived right next door to well known Maine photographer Steve Rubicam.

		Keith began taking his photography hobby seriously after reading an article in the Boothbay Register by David A. Murray, where Murray wrote about the virtues of digital photography. The notion that digital photographs would be “accepted” in the world of serious photography hadn’t occurred to Keith, who was more adept with computers and technology than with darkrooms, chemicals and fidgeting with multiple lenses. This site contains a variety of his work, and is long on the things he loves: his children, islands off the coast of Maine, intriguing bits of architecture, and serendipitous scenes that unfold around his residence in Portland’s Old Port District.

Keith’s Advice for Digital Photographers:

Get yourself a copy of Adobe Photoshop. It doesn’t have to be the latest version (the latest is Photoshop CS - Version 9) but it should be the full version of a relatively recent release (Photoshop 5.5 is an excellent program). Yes, Photoshop is expensive but its important because it is the industry AND the hobbyist standard. When digital photographers get together we share tips and tricks with Photoshop that are often difficult for the non-Photoshop user to assimilate. It would be a shame to master a $29 photo editing program, only to be limited by it later or worse, find that the program is discontinued with no upgrade path. Sooner or later, you will use Photoshop. I suggest sooner.

Don’t turn your digital camera into an Instamatic. Virtually every digital camera over $200 has powerful features to control shutter speed, focal length, white balance, and more. Learn to use them for results that will far exceed ”safe” auto settings that accentuate nothing.

Some famous photographs technically suck. Many of your favorite pictures by famous photographers aren’t as technically great as you remember them. Walk into any poster shop and check out the quality of the photos - many of them are great only for their composition. So don’t kick yourself for not being perfect on the focus or exposure levels. Apologize to no one. Unless you are photographing a wedding.

Shoot the scene, and shoot it often. When I see a picture I really want I will often shoot it as much as fifty times using slightly different settings on the camera, with slightly different angles. That way you are almost assured of getting at least one of those technical masterpieces. The hard part is finally deleting the dozens of pictures that are virtually the same.

When shooting outside, white is the enemy. This is true of film photography as well, but doubly true for digital. There isn’t much you can do about it, but if you have the chance, avoid pictures with a high percentage of stark white in the background.

Use the filters and effects in Photoshop with reckless abandon. Don’t be afraid to amp up the saturation or true the colors using the power of Photoshop. All of these features are available to film photographers in the darkroom, so you should use them too.

Ask for advice. Feel free to ask me a question.