Tracking the Sky Photograph

Photography has always been an inherent part of Southern California native Jon Evan Glaser’ life. He first picked up a camera when he was 10 years old, and spent his teenage years behind the lens, until he graduated from high school and turned his efforts to pursuing a career in dentistry. This choice of profession was surprisingly complementary to his love of – and enjoyment in creating – art. Glaser spent 15 years building a thriving practice in Delray Beach, FL, taking advantage of the opportunity restorative dentistry gave him to exercise his creativity and artistic abilities, particularly in the preparation of crowns for patients and photographic documentation of difficult cases. Establishing himself as a restorative dentist, until physical circumstances forced him to retire. Faced with re-evaluating his career path due to Multiple Sclerosis, Glaser embarked on a new journey that took him back to familiar territory. “I had no idea how much of a ‘tonic’ picture-taking and picture-making would become,” he said. “While in dentistry, I was creating with my hands; with photography I am creating with my mind. The art opened up a whole new world for me, a world in which I see so many amazing things…that I can share with others.” Glaser is a firm believer in learning by doing. This conviction led him to study at the Boca Raton Museum of Art School, Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square, Palm Beach Photographic Centre as well as participate in myriad workshops with professional photographers around the country. Master photographers like Jack Wild, Vincent Versace and Lee Gordon, among others, fueled Glaser’s passion for photography, helping him reach new heights. He began to “eat and breathe” the art, and found his own style. “I ‘broke out’ of my initial way of thinking about how an image is created; there is no mere ‘snap and crop’; there is much involved in the art of photography than that,” he said. “When I embarked on my photographic career, I struggled to create images of what I saw in nature. It was surprising to learn that the human eye can see 24 shades of light, while the camera is limited to 12.” Glaser found a two-step solution to this challenge: 1) Using a split neutral density filter; and 2) Enhancing his images through Photoshop, to provide proper exposure by lightening the foreground areas that too dark or darkening the areas of the sky where too bright. Glaser incorporates dramatic weather and foreground interest.