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A Lifelong Journey to Photographic Artist and Teacher:
Sherron Sheppard
By Caresse Muir
Anyone who has seen the work of photographic artist Sherron Sheppard has also seen how she
has combined her talent as a painter, her skills as a photographer, and her knowledge of
Photoshop and Painter to create some breathtaking and award-winning images. Sherron's
journey from an equipment maintainer for General Telephone to photographer and teacher
is quite fascinating.
Sherron has lived in the Oxnard-Ventura area of California all of her life. After
graduation from Camarillo High School, she attended Ventura College and then went to work
for General Telephone (now Verizon), where she worked for 30 years. She began her career
as a telephone operator and was eventually promoted to an equipment maintainer. Her job
was to repair fiber optic, microwave radio and carrier systems; she was one of very few
women in the company to have a radio license. She and her husband, Ron, have been married
for 40 years and have a daughter who is now married herself.
So how does someone in the technical field of fiber optics and microwave radio repair
become a photographic artist? As a child, Sherron was always interested in drawing and
painting, and she loved taking art classes. She read numerous books on art and began
taking private oil painting lessons in 1973, which she continued for 10 years. Sherron
also painted with acrylic and watercolor paints. She taught watercolor painting at
Yosemite National Park for eight years in their "Summer Guest Artist Program," as well
as teaching privately.
When Sherron retired from the phone company, she signed up for a hand-tinting class
taught by a Santa Barbara photographer. She says, "We did so many wonderful art things in
this class that it inspired me to look into photography as a second career." She began
taking photography classes at Ventura College and joined two local PPA affiliates. Sherron
also took classes taught by local photographers, and she attended California Photographic
Workshops and West Coast School each year. She was a faithful attendee at WPPI, the
Professional Photographers of California convention and the PPA convention every year for
the education, inspiration, and to keep abreast of new advancements and trends. "I always
look for art classes outside of the photography world to broaden my education and push me
to explore new art techniques that can blend with my photography," she says. "Although I
now teach, I will forever be a student."
Sherron began her photography business in 1995 after her retirement from General Telephone.
She and her husband, Ron, ran a very successful home-based studio for many years, until
Ron's recent retirement from engineering. They now devote most of their time to teaching
and travel. The specialty of their wedding business was art, and that is how they stood
out from their competitors. They were able to offer products with a handmade quality that
clients could not find anywhere else. Among their offerings were hand-tinted images,
infrared images, handmade paper art albums and 3D photography. "Our handmade paper albums
were one-of-a-kind art albums that used art paper with deckle edges as underlays behind
the photographs and had hand-painted flowers in watercolor on selected pages."
Sherron's fellow photographers have influenced her along the way. "Probably the photographer
that has influenced my wedding photography the most is Bambi Cantrell," she says. "After taking
Bambi's class at California Photographic Workshop, I changed the way I approached my wedding
business and enhanced the marketing of my business. The people that influenced my digital art
the most were Jeremy Sutton and Tim Grey. Jeremy pushed me to see what my digital art could
become by approaching his workshops from a creative standpoint. Tim helped me better understand
Photoshop.
"One thing that influenced my digital art the most was the book Creative Photoshop by
Sharon Steur. After reading this book cover to cover, I realized I was trying to make Photoshop
harder than it needed to be to create fine art. I was getting caught up in the 'how to do' or
left-brain Photoshop and getting discouraged when I was unable to memorize all that Photoshop
offers. Plus, I was forgetting all the design rules I had learned when I was painting with
traditional mediums. I started approaching my digital art the same way I approached my
traditional art, using a more simplified approach to Photoshop and paying more attention to
the rules of composition and design. From that point on I felt like my digital art started to
approach the 'gallery fine art' level. I am now teaching other artists how to approach photography
from an artist's view and how to merge the reality of a photograph with the artistic expression
of traditional art."
Sherron continues to look for inspiration for her artistic images. She finds that inspiration
in traditional art by looking through art magazines, studying the great masters and contemporary
artists, reading books, and visiting art galleries. She subscribes not only to photography
magazines but also to several traditional art magazines. She is constantly studying the composition,
design and use of color of traditional artists. Sherron reflects, "This gives me wonderful
inspiration for my own photography and also pushes me to create new art effects for my Photoshop
'Digital Artistry with Impact' and 'Digital Artistry in Motion' workshops."
Sherron describes her photographic style as a blend of the oil and watercolor painting styles
she developed when she was a traditional painter. She loves to use soft colors and soft edges,
and her images are recognizable because of these effects. Her images are often mistaken for
paintings, a goal her techniques help her to accomplish. She says that digital photography
has allowed her to push her images way beyond what they were when she was shooting film. "I
love to explore an image and see what direction it might take," she says. "I have reworked
images that scored in the 80s in local competitions and pushed them to new heights. They
then often scored in the 90s at state and national competitions."
Sherron photographs with a variety of cameras. She uses a Canon EOS 5D, a Canon EOS-1Ds, a
Canon EOS-1V for infrared film, a Canon D60 converted to digital infrared and a 1940 View
Master stereo camera for creating 3D images. She prints all of her fine art images on an Epson
4000, on either Epson, Hahnemühle or Japanese handmade paper.
Sherron has won many awards for her photography. In 2003, she was awarded the "Photographer
of the Year" in the Journalistic Wedding category for California. In 2005 and 2006, she won
California's "Illustrative Photographer of the Year." She was also awarded California's
"Photographer of the Year" in 2006, as well as two Judges' Awards, Best of Show, a Kodak
Gallery Award and "The People's Choice" Award. Also in 2006, she was recognized at PPA's
convention as a "Platinum Photographer of the Year" with three out of four Loan Collection
images. She was also inducted into the American Society of Photographers. She is a PPA Master
Photographer and PPA Photographic Craftsman and has five PPA Loan Collection images, two PPA
Showcase images, two Kodak Gallery Awards, four Fuji Masterpiece Awards and four Judges Awards.
Her watercolor images have been displayed in the Yosemite Art Center and her photographs have
been featured three times on the cover of ProPhoto West Magazine.
Sherron now enjoys teaching other photographers her techniques for turning photographs into
fine art images through the use of Photoshop in her workshops. She feels that this is the most
important thing she does as a photographer now. She understands the importance of being different
from competitors by being able to offer unique and artistic products that are custom made. She loves
her job and gets excited when she creates a new Photoshop art technique that mimics traditional art
and can be passed along to her students. Her latest technique is an SX-70 effect, which makes an
image look very much like one that was created with discontinued Polaroid film and manipulated by
hand. Finally, Sherron says, "My great joy today as a photographer and teacher is to see the same
joy, excitement, and passion for art and photography that I feel ignited in the eyes and hearts
of my students." To see more of Sherron's work, please visit her website,
www.sheppardphotography.com.
Caresse Muir began her home-based business nine years ago, specializing in family, high
school seniors, children's portraits and weddings. She is a PPA Certified Master
Photographer, a member of WPPI and Professional Photographers of California. She is
currently the president of the Professional Photographers of San Diego County.
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