About Jeff Glasser...

Photography has always been part of my life. My dad was an award-winning photographer in his World War II days, and most of his friends shared the hobby, too. Every now and then they would take over our storage pantry and turn it into a darkroom. Before you knew it, the house was overflowing with black and white pictures of family and friends and vacations.

I had a couple of Kodak and Argus cameras growing up but didn't do a lot with them. To my way of thinking, Mayfield Heights was just too ordinary and I didn't think there was anything worth taking pictures of...why take pictures of something you've seen every day of your life? That attitude -- and my life in general -- took a radical turn about two months after I graduated from high school: I joined the U.S. Air Force.

I bought my first SLR in 1971, while stationed in New Mexico. I had never traveled far from my home, so the desert southwest gave me many wonderful things to see. And, cameras I couldn't touch back home were cheap and plentiful (thanks to my fellow airmen who had returned from overseas). My picture count skyrocketed a year later, when Uncle Sam sent me to a remote base in the middle of Thailand. What I saw there was a world I never knew existed, and the only way to bring it back to my world was with a camera.

After I left the Air Force, I moved to Columbus to attend the Ohio State University. My goal was to get a job in broadcasting, and it was here that I began my lifelong journey in imaging: I was one of only a handful of students to get an internship working alongside camera and lighting techs in studio operations at the school's PBS station, WOSU-TV. From there, I have spent the last 30 years working various aspects of cable, educational, and network-affiliated broadcast TV.

Working in TV has been highly beneficial to my still photography. Television is really just a series of still pictures (30 per second, to be exact) strung together in time. Seeing the logical flow of movement in a given scene has provided me with a unique perspective; it enables me to better anticipate when to trip the shutter at just the right time to capture that one-in-a-hundred shot. And since much of what I've done is live (read that, 'no second chances'), I've also developed the skills in lighting, composition, and other technical aspects necessary to get the job done right the first time -- and quickly.

My TV career has been broad-based. I've done commercials, public service, entertainment, politics, documentaries, sports, news...the list goes on. Having worked in so many hands-on aspects of television production means that in just about every circumstance, I'm in familiar territory, and know what is needed to get the most out of the situation within that environment, whether it's a properly-equipped studio or an austere, less-than-pleasant location. (One of my first remote mini-cam assignments was a real "new guy" initiation: get in the pen with the animals at the state fair, and follow them as they were coming down the chute!)

With "Location Photography by Jeff Glasser (dot com)," I've taken it to the next level. Being a professional communicator for so many years has taught me well; i.e., how to make the media speak to the viewer...to tell a story.

My career has come a long way since that hot August day in a cattle barn. However, my approach remains the same: capturing a moment in time—on its terms.

In A Nutshell...

Hometown: The Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights, Ohio

Education: B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Accomplishments: Published author, accomplished musician, former auxiliary police officer, U.S. Air Force veteran