The rest is history!
I quickly decided as a teen that becoming a photographer was the only thing I was interested in doing as a career. Throughout high school I studied photography by taking as many classes that school offered. I even went as far as taking several adult-ed classes in the evening.
After graduating high school in 1986 I enlisted in the US Navy in and took their Photographers Mate "A" School training. This was equivalent to a 2 year technical school crammed into 9 short weeks! I spent my naval career photographing everything from awards presentations to portraits to damaged equipment.
In 1989 I returned to Bangor, Maine and proceeded to begin my career as a freelance photographer. I went to work for a local photo lab doing all the custom black & white printing, copy work and 1 hour processing. This also gave me an opportunity to do freelance work for companies such as General Electric and the Bangor Daily News.
In 1991 I had the opportunity to try my hand a "moving" pictures by joining WABI-TV as a News Videographer. Having no experience in video I was giving on the job training in video shooting and editing. I discovered that video is simply telling the same photo story with 30fps (frames per second) and sound. After 4 1/2 years I moved to WLBZ-2 in Bangor and eventually became the stations Chief Photojournalist. In my 7 years there I earned a Maine Association of Broadcasters "Spot News" award for video coverage of the escape of Michael Chasse who was convicted in the assault of Secretary of Defense William Cohen's brother, Bob Cohen.
In 2002 I decided that it was time to move on from television and I am now back, diving deeper into the realm of digital photography. I am enjoying still photography more than ever now with the "digital darkroom" experience!
- Ken D'Errico