Jeff Donald
Jeff Donald started his photo sojourn in the late ’70’s following his graduation from the College of Wooster. He worked for several years in a small retail camera shop in Cincinnati, OH. Married in early 1980, he moved to Bozeman, MT in the fall of 1981 and taught photography at Montana State University through the Spring of 1985.
Returning to Cincinnati, he again worked for a small retail camera shop and at the same time started a freelance photography business. His photography business grew and he was soon working for Fortune 500 clients as well as leading Photo Safaris to Kenya, Tanzania, Belize and the Philippines. In 1989 he added video services to his company and withdrew from further world travels.
The early ’90’s saw tremendous growth of his company and he added two parters and employed a staff of 17 people. The video business thrived and his travels resumed, except this time it was to the top bird watching spots in North America. Jeff and his wife travelled extensively during this period and produced 10 documentaries about wildlife in North America for PBS and other media outlets. Many of the productions garnered national awards.
In 1996 Jeff sold his business to his two partners and diverged on a different path. Under the direction of a former client he worked the following 12 months as Director of Photography on the first film officially endorsed by the NFL, about the NFL, in over two decades. His travels for the production took him to over 20 of the 26 NFL cities in the following year. The film was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
Upon the completion of the film Jeff was hired by Ritz Camera Centers Inc. to manage new stores in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was soon promoted to Senior Store manager and District Manager. In 2001 Jeff and his family moved to the Tampa Bay, Florida area and he return to teaching after an absence of nearly 20 years.
Jeff then spent the next 5 years teaching for the Dunedin Fine Art Center where he developed the Digital Photography program and instituted their first online classes. He developed their first computer lab and also started their first computer aided classes for children and taught in their Children’s Summer Program as well.
In January of 2003 Jeff started an online photography club that was the foundation for the North Pinellas Photography Forum. In mid 2006 Apple Computer persuaded Jeff to leave teaching and return to the retail business. Jeff worked as the Operations Manager for Apple Computer at their retail Store at International Plaza in Tampa. During his tenure with Apple he oversaw sales growth that nearly doubled from 36M dollars to 65M dollars. Jeff left Apple in mid 2008 to return to teaching and today enjoys working on a one to one basis with numerous students and is the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Creative Photography.
Call Digital Photo Academy at 1 877 372 2231. Lots of people seem to hang up if our welcome recording comes on instead of a live voice, but we promise to return your message within a day or two if you leave one with your name and number. It would be even better if you included your e mail address as well as the date and city of the class you are considering. If leaving a voice mail message is not your thing, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
3 Comments
“Thanks for your time today in the photography class. It was fun and I learned a lot.
One of the reasons Bridgette and I took your class today was to get more familiar with the camera and the different options (ISO, F Stops, Histogram, etc.). We will be going to Hawaii in a couple of months and we would like to come back with some nice shots.
Thanks again for your help today!”
—Keith
“The class was great!I think that my husband and I were somewhere in the middle of the group when it came to photography. You did an outstanding job of meeting the needs of everyone in the group, which must have been quite a challenge since this was an extremely diverse group.
I learned a lot — and my biggest take away… don’t pack up and leave seconds after the sun goes down at sunset. The sky just lights up for those 20 minutes following sunset, and I have missed it all these years, especially at the beach!!!! So many wasted opportunities!
Also, I didn’t know that the histogram existed, and how helpful that is! Even though I am usually technologically challenged, you made many of the technical aspects of camera functions quite understandable.
Your class has made me excited to keep learning.”
—Michelle Fox
“I was in Peninsula, Ohio on 6/2/12 with Jeff and we had a great time.”
—Student Courtney L. Clough