ABOUT

Born in Winchester, Virginia, raised in the DMV area, and educated in Rochester, NY and now operating in Baltimore, MD. This quick overview of his story is about the love of the arts and photography. 

 

With a fascination with the manipulative power of light and an acute eye for revealing the beauty behind each photograph taken began Jeff Martin’s sojourn into the world of photography. 

 

To watch Jeff artfully handling the tools of his craft is to watch an ingenious artist and consummate professional who knows how to bring out the best in his subject—be it human or out in nature.

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Over thirty years ago Jeff was gifted his first camera, an Olympus Infinity Super Zoom 330 film camera and found himself on the island of Kauai. With this camera, a 4H pencil, some charcoal and his Strathmore Drawing natural white paper, he used his artistic talents to record the beauty of the islands for three weeks.

 

But truthfully Jeff’s eyes were opened to a new art form—capturing light on film. Once he got "his first roll" of Kodak Gold film developed, shutterbug was born!

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On returning to the mainland he decided to find time to add formal photography classes as he was already enrolled in business classes. And he did so a few years later at the local community college. At Howard Community College in Columbia, MD he was encouraged by department director Jan Starr's teachings. Those semesters at H.C.C. motivated him to open up and explore his interests in new ways.

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At this same time (1996) is when the opportunity to photograph a family friends wedding presented itself. This was very unnerving as he had only been shooting landscapes and nature subjects, then framing and selling the results. People are totally different, he said! Remember this was back in the film days, his mind switched to needing a crash course in understanding film stock for capturing proper skin tones in his photography. Well, he survived and loved it so MSP Wedding Photography was born. 

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In 1999, Jeff went to Rochester Institute of Technology (R.I.T.) in Rochester, NY thanks to his employer The Washington Post Newspaper. This was a great opportunity since R.I.T. was the top school for photography. Yes, this is also where he learned his printing skills. 

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It didn't take long for him to see the need to open up his own studio after leaving R.I.T.. After shooting clients in some of his favorite locations in and around the Washington DC area, renting studio space and using studio space where he was teaching photography at The Washington School of Photography in Bethesda, MD with Executive Director, Missy Loewe in the evenings and weekends. Yes, it was time to settle into his favorite shooting styles editorial and portrait photography in his own creative space.

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Jeff opened up his first studio in Baltimore, MD in 2006 in Highlandtown. He is still operating his studio "Skyloft F Rental Studio" to this day.

 

Even now, at the peak of his career Jeff says, “The ability to create art in 1/125th of a second or faster is still amazing to me.”

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Countless magazines has published his work over the long years, but now he enjoys meeting people coming into the studio looking to capture their branding projects or products. Plus now creating personal work he finally has time to do is a blessing.

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The next project he says, is to finally put a book together capturing his memoirs for his kids. He can't wait to see their reactions after seeing what Daddy created and reading the stories behind the images and the man over the years.

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Life is to be explored and celebrated. Get started!