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Does Photography and Pickleball Pair? An Interview with Jerry Downs and Richard Rabinowitz

Does Photography and Pickleball Pair? An Interview with Jerry Downs and Richard Rabinowitz

  • We sat down with photographer Jerry Downs and Richard Rabinowitz, a photography guru, and discussed mastering photography and how pictures can capture life's fleeting moments, including those rare pickleball shots.
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What does it take to make a photo pop? And why are photographs so powerful? What is it that they capture? We sat down with Jerry Downs, a photographer and writer living in San Francisco and Richard Rabinowitz who runs a successful photography academy in sixty cities across the U.S to find out how photography and pickleball pair. 

Please share a bit about yourselves and how you wound up working together. 

Jerry Downs is a multi-faceted artist whose work has graced museums, magazines, and books worldwide. Beyond his captivating creations, he’s also a passionate educator, leading talks and seminars on photography, visual literacy, and the fascinating world of optical illusions. His debut book, “THE PRESENT – Finding Myself in the Middle of Nowhere,” is a deeply personal journey of self-discovery, visually enriched by photographs captured over four decades of exploring the American West.

Although Richard Rabinowitz himself is not a photographer, prior to heading up the Digital Photo Academy, he grew up in magazine ad sales and quickly moved up to VP/Group Publisher for a number of major consumer magazines. His successful photography academy is now in sixty cities across the United States — all of which he manages from his apartment in the Big Apple. Richard discovered Jerry’s work on Facebook and admired his array of spectacular images.

What brings the Pickleball Community together? Is it the love of sport? Social? Inclusivity of the game?

Just as photography is a great path to harmony and group bonding, so too is pickleball. 

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Jerry, please tell me about the photography you have done of pickleball courts. 

Jerry is currently on assignment for Intopickleball, photographing pickleball activities in San Francisco with each selected image being credited as Jerry Downs, Digital Photo Academy Instructor in San Francisco. The selected images will be used in articles, social promotion and our newsletter. 

Richard, please tell me about the photography courses at the Digital Photo Academy.

Digital Photo Academy has been around for eighteen  years with professional photographers teaching live group workshops every month in the twenty four cities where they respectively live. Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Hudson Valley, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Toronto, Tucson and Washington DC.

Every month there is a scheduled back to back pair of sessions, Mastering Your Camera Controls followed by Composition in the Field for a total of four and a half hours and always on a Saturday or Sunday. Digital Photo Academy also runs private workshops for individuals and corporate events.

For 12 years, Digital Photo Academy has produced networking photo workshops for Match.com and introduced Richard Porter to this client which has resulted in a successful alliance between IntoPickleball and Match.com

What do you hope the course brings to people that take it? What should they achieve and who should take the course?

Learning how to use their cameras and cell phones to take photographs which is not as easy as the retail salesperson might indicate. A sit-down session on the automatic AND manual controls of photo equipment and from there how to compose powerful images.

Richard, what was the wildest image a student took?

Here are a few that a student in Cleveland, Eric Tilson, shot and now he is one of our teachers. 

What is it about photography that draws in the avid student? What is the general appeal in learning how to take amazing photographs? 

Self expression, socializing, finding the beauty and wonder of our world, technical know-how, exercise of the body and mind, communication in a universal language

Where do you each foresee the world of pickleball going?

Everywhere one looks, people of all ages and backgrounds are talking about Pickleball and I imagine that will continue to grow. Making photographs of the activity will help the activity grow. 

Follow Digital Photo Academy on social media 

Facbook

Instagram 

Facebook pages which members can post their images and comments:

Digital Photo Academy Community

Celebrating Senior ShutterbugsFollow Jerry Downs on Facebook at  Synchronicity City and Jerry Downs

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