The Commercial Work gallery is comprised of 29 photos that are a sampling of photography I did part time during the 1990s while working as a career electrical design engineer at local high tech manufacturing businesses, including some for whom I also did photography. I was a better engineer than I was a photographer, but I was convenient because I was able to pick up products, set up the correct displays and return them after I was done. I could do acceptable work, but was a one-trick-pony. The marketing people I worked with were talented and pleasant, while I have most of the more unappealing personality challenges associated with autism. The vast majority of my work was for TxPORT, a telecom manufacturer, and Phoenix Microsystems, a maker of telecom test equipment, both located in Huntsville, Alabama. My company name was Krueger Photography and it was officially in business for 11 years and contracted with eight companies, several of which were affiliated with each other at some point.
During the time I operated the business, I had nothing to do a lot of the time and suddenly too much to do by a given deadline. Back then, everything was shot on film, color studio work was shot exclusively on Ektachrome EPP, most often 4 x 5 in. and some 6 x 7 cm, and 35mm on the few occasions I worked on location. B&W was most often 6×7 cm. I did the B&W darkroom work myself and used a local lab for the color. The transparency film originals were turned over to the customer, so the pictures in this new Commercial Work gallery are almost all scans of small to medium sized halftone images in the few publications I kept as memorabilia of those days. The B&W images in the gallery are scans from 8×10 darkroom prints.
The world has changed since then. During those years of doing commercial work part time, I virtually never did any personal photography. After closing the business, my interest in photography as a hobby returned and I began planning trips specifically as photo expeditions. I also added a dedicated studio, frame shop, and darkroom to my house. I did some work for modeling schools and a local agency as well as head shots for local theater groups. I’ve exhibited in a few local venues and had work published in a national print magazine and online by Italy’s la Repubblica. I no longer do any work for hire, nor do I market my work. Finally realizing that digital photography is not just a passing fad like cell phones and the internet (haha!), I bought a D850 digital camera in 2024.
But, I still shoot film almost exclusively.
The Commercial Work gallery was also an experiment to familiarize myself with embedded image metadata which was never added to my previous image files. In addition to a title and description, I will include some technical information. Aside from my Nikon F100 and F6 none of my film cameras collects Exif data. I will be embedding available Exif, IPTC, and XMP metadata to my JPG files going forward. Future gallery images will include a variety of subjects many of which have never been presented publicly before.
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