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.

Roy Sewall

Roy entered the world of photography as a hobbyist in 1972 with a pair of Konica AutoReflex SLRs and 4 lenses - still in excellent condition. His early adventures mostly involved travel photography, including photo expeditions to Kenya and Tanzania. After many years as a casual shooter, Roy shifted into semi-professional outdoor photography with an emphasis on the Potomac River in the Washington, D.C., area. In 2005 he published his first coffee table photography book, "Our Potomac, from Great Falls to Washington, D.C."

In 2005 Roy switched from his Nikon film system to a high-end Canon digital system, including the EOS 1Ds Mark II, 24-70/2.8L, 70-200/2.8L IS, and 17-40/4.0L. He uses the latest version of PhotoShop and an Epson 2200 printer.

"The switch from Nikon to Canon was a difficult decision," says Roy. "I was very happy with my Nikon F5 and had a considerable investment in lenses. However, Canon’s full-size image sensor on the 1Ds Mark II was the pivotal issue. I really miss Nikon’s more intuitive user interface. But the Mark II’s images are simply magnificent."

Roy has worked in engineering, management, and business development for General Electric, Booz Allen Applied Research, Fairchild, and Orbital Sciences. In addition to his commercial and book photography, he now provides business development consulting services from his home office.

Tom Field

Tom is the Web developer of this site (and numerous others). He has been a photography enthusiast for some 25 years, and now uses digital imaging in his advanced media consulting business. He likes to explore creative and unconventional photographic methods such as his PoleCam (remotely-operated digital camera on a long pole). He owns Canon lenses and therefore Canon bodies, prints with Epson inkjets, and is a long-time Photoshop user on "Wintel" computers.

Tom embraced digital camera technology at an early stage -- too early! His first digital was the new Casio, boasting 250,000 low-quality pixels, and not useful for anything serious. But at the time it was an amazing device. Several years later, Tom shifted almost completely to an all-digital workflow with the introduction of the Canon D60. He now uses an EOS-1Ds and an EOS-20D, and eagerly awaits future advances in digital imaging and display technology.

Tom's background is engineering, physics and business management. Before that he was bassist for a professional rock band and still performs for numerous weddings and parties each year with his band TomCats. Other interests include audio production and sound reinforcement technologies, where an all-digital paradigm rapidly overtook the analog world as the better choice for quality and productivity. He has conducted independent testing on photographic equipment, such as lens sharpness tests and lightfastness comparisons of inkjet fine art prints.

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