Insight #1

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the professional photographer for the Jan 19th class. Her name is Jamie Konarski Davidson.

Jamie was born and raised in Blue Point, New York, a small town on the south shore of Long Island. She moved to Greenville in 1982, where she completed her B.A. and M.A. in English Literature at East Carolina University.

For most of her life she had used a point-and-shoot camera to "take pictures." For many different reasons, making the financial and photographic leap to a "real camera" was not an option or priority. A diagnosis and recurrence of breast cancer in her early 30s gave her the courage and incentive to purchase her first 35mm camera.

The gift of life encouraged her to discover a passion for exploring the world around her through photography. That first year was one of great learning, and Jamie knew that she finally had the tools to begin capturing the essence of the miracles she saw and what she envisioned.

In 1997 she experienced an epiphany in a field of wildflowers on the North Carolina coast. Upon entering this field with her camera, she carried with her a load of stress and emotional burdens. Surrounded by explosions of color, shapes and patterns, she focused her attention on the intimate details revealed to her as she crawled around the poppies, oxeye daisies and cosmos. After a while, her shoulders dropped, her breathing slowed, and that all the "stuff" she carried into the field had disappeared. At that moment she realized the healing powers of nature and the spiritual connection she felt as she photographed. At that moment, New Life Photos was born.

With special emphasis on close-up photography, Jamie focuses on the intimate details of the natural world -- ones that can be seen only when the hurried pace of life is slowed. Her photographic interests also include gardens, wildflowers, old farm buildings and tobacco barns, lighthouses and coastal scenes.

Jamie has exhibited her work over the past ten years, including the North Carolina Museum of Life & Science, Sertoma Arts Center, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences with fellow nature photographer, Bill Campbell. Her work has appeared in North Carolina Literary Review and Fear of the Coming Drought and on the covers of Impressions magazine (Spring/Summer 2004), Tar River Poetry, Asheville Poetry Review and the Breast Cancer Resource Directory of North Carolina (First, Second & Third Editions). She is an active member of the North American Nature Photography Association and Carolinas Nature Photographers Association. Jamie joined the staff of ASAP Photo & Camera in Greenville in 2006 and enjoys helping people get the most out of their photography adventures.

Jamie shares her images, field experiences and love of nature photography through presentations and workshops. Her work is currently available online and at Artisans in Greenville, NC.

I want to publicly thank Jamie for stepping in and assisting me to offer a better class due to her presence. I've met Jamie and think you will find her to be an AWESOME addition to the class.