Jim Crotty is a full-time, professional photographer who owns and manages the Picture Ohio, LLC studio in Dayton, Ohio. Jim is originally from Dayton but has also lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been involved with photography since the mid-1970’s, starting out with a Pentax camera and a black and white darkroom in the basement of his childhood home. In addition to providing a wide variety of commercial and editorial photography services that include architectural, product, portrait and event imaging, Jim also continues to capture nature, landscape and wildlife images that have garnished local, regional and nation awards and publication. In 2007 one of Jim’s wildlife photographs was chosen for publication in National Wildlife and Nature’s Best magazines as well as shown at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.
Installations of his fine art nature prints can be viewed at hospitals and medical centers in Dayton, Columbus, Lima and Portsmouth, Ohio. His editorial clients include Great Lakes Publishing, the University of Dayton, Housetrends Magazine, Orange Frazer Press, Gray and Co. Publishers, Ohio State Parks and the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Jim teaches and presents workshops to schools, civic groups and camera clubs throughout Ohio. On April 29th, 2008, Jim presented his work of Southeastern Ohio landscapes to the New York City Chapter of the Sierra Club.
In 2007 Jim published his first book, “Found Light: A Catalog of Images” and contributed his photographs to a joint publishing project with Ohio Poet Stephen Emerick, titled “Poems from the Inn at Cedar Falls.” Jim is currently working on his second self-publishing project, “In the Eye of the Eagle” which will feature his high dynamic range nature and landscape photographs taken throughout 2007 and 2008 of such location as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Colorado Plateau area of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. He is also working a second joint-publishing project with Stephen Emerick, titled “Poems from Deep Woods.”
He is a 1989 graduate of the University of Dayton and he holds a Master of Professional Communication from Westminster College of Salt Lake City. He has also studied professional nature photography taught by David Middleton at the Rocky Mountain School of Photographer in Missoula, Montana. Jim lists his artistic influences as being David Middleton, John Shaw, Jim Brandeburg, Galen Rowell as well as a few of the original masters, including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Paul Strand. Although a Dayton native, Jim considers the Hocking Hills Region of Ohio to be the “true home of his creative spirit and artistic soul.”
Jim shoots almost entirely with digital equipment including Canon EOS camera bodies and Canon L lenses and utilizes Mac based hardware for editing, post-processing and digital file management. Stock licensing of Jim Crotty’s work is represented by Alamy, iStock Photo and Trigger Image. Jim is a member of Professional Photographers of America, Professional Photographers of Ohio, American Society of Media Photographers, North American Nature Photography Association, Outdoor Writers of Ohio and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Jim currently resides in Dayton, Ohio and he is the proud father of daughters, Emma and Chloe.
