PhotoCentric.net is a photographic instruction web site that was launched in 2003 by Tom Field and Roy Sewall. Its purpose is to help photography enthusiasts make better images.

About the Partners

Kent Mason

Kent says, "I experience a euphoric creative high when photographing nature and landscapes. I love the natural world and find great joy in studying or recording it with a camera. Currently, I am doing a photographic environmental study of an extraordinary highland environment in the Mid-Atlantic states: the Dolly Sods Wilderness and Scenic Area that is located in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest, and the Bear Rock Preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy. I've built a home nearby in the middle of the Potomac Highlands to make this and other wondrous environments more accessible year around to me, my wife and friends."

Kent bought his first rangefinder camera in high school and his first SLR, a Pentax HIA, after graduating from college in 1964. In the 1980s he moved up to a Pentax 645 medium format system; in the 1990s he expanded to Hasselblad 6x6 equipment; and in 2006 he made the digital switch to a 35mm Canon System. Currently he uses a Canon 5D for landscapes and a Canon 30D for wildlife.

Wedding Photography became a professional part-time activity for ten years to support Kent’s desire for more equipment. He has been teaching photography classes in Mastering the Craft of Photography and Visual Design for the past ten years. He sells fine art photography, has displayed his work in such places as the National Wildlife Federation Headquarters, and has had images published in calendars and Nature's Best Magazine.

Currently Kent is producing a book titled The West Virginia Wilderness: A Photographic Study and Conservation View. This is a collaborative effort with The Nature Conservancy. In addition Kent has produced a West Virginia Wilderness Conservation Print Collection made up of twenty 16" x 24" prints. All profits from the sale of these prints go to preservation and conservation causes.

Kent has a BA in sociology, a MS in the Administration of Justice, and postgraduate work in counseling psychology. During his full time career Kent managed a 250 person police unit, served as a deputy warden of a major correctional institution and spent over 20 years as the administrator of a community correctional facility as well as pre and post trial non-residential programs for over 1000 offenders. Kent retired at age 50 to do photography. He has been widely recognized for accomplishments in this art form. Kent was awarded highest honors in Advanced Color Slides competition in 2006, as the North Bethesda Camera Club Photographer of the Year.

Roy Sewall

Roy is one of the leading photographers of the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal in the Washington, D.C., area. Although Roy spent most of his youth in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, his State Department family’s home base was the Washington, D.C., area. Roy has a BS in Physics from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland and a MS in Engineering Science from Penn State. He returned permanently to the Washington area in 1969 and worked for several major technology corporations for over 30 years.

Roy’s interest in photography evolved from extensive travel in five continents. In 2001, he started his transition to full-time photographer. He always found the Washington area to be one of the most photogenic locations in the world. Roy’s first photography book, Our Potomac, from Great Falls through Washington, D.C., was published in 2005; it was inspired by his affection for hiking and bicycling along the river and the adjacent C&O Canal. The book has led to numerous lecture and slide show engagements with local organizations.

In 2007, Roy became Chair of the Board of Directors for the C&O Canal Trust, a non-profit friends group for the National Park Service. Roy has done extensive photography work for river- and C&O Canal-related government and non-profit organizations, as well as private clients. He was a guest on WETA’s program “Great Views of Washington D.C.” and will be the featured photographer in the forthcoming Best of D.C. publication.

Roy’s second book, Great Falls and Mather Gorge, was published at the beginning of 2009 and is now available.

Tom Field

Tom is the Web developer of this site (and numerous others). Tom Field has been a photography enthusiast for some 30 years, and uses digital imaging extensively in his multimedia engineering business. He sells fine art prints created on an HP large format printer, and teaches Photoshop and digital photography to advanced photographers.

Tom embraced digital camera technology in its infancy. His first digital was a Casio boasting one-quarter megapixel – truly an amazing device at the time, but now a museum relic. When Canon brought out its six-megapixel SLR, Tom shifted to an all-digital workflow and hasn’t touched film since. Tom now uses an extensive lineup of Canon professional products: lenses, bodies, and projectors. He eagerly awaits future advances in digital imaging and display technology.

Tom was an early adopter of computer-assisted photo techniques now commonplace: panoramic stitching, focus blending, high dynamic range imaging, and tethered camera remote control. His lab has received awards for independent testing of photographic equipment, such as lens sharpness and print lightfastness. Currently he is pioneering the use of HDTV, Blu-Ray Disc, and commercial digital posters for high quality presentation of fine-art photography.

Tom’s background is engineering, physics and business management. Before that he was a full-time musician, and he still performs with his band TomCats. His other interests include audio production and live sound reinforcement – industries also revolutionized by an all-digital paradigm. Tom was honored as the Photographer of the Year in 2006, Advanced Electronic Image Competition, by the North Bethesda Camera Club.

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