BIOGRAPHY of Tim Koverman

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1937. [ the year of the great Ohio River Flood ] I grew up in Dayton, Ohio.   My father Bill Koverman started working in photography in the early 1930s.  [ He was born in 1913 in New Castle, Indiana - the year of the great Miami River Flood ]  After WW II he opened a studio in Dayton, Ohio - "C. Koverman Studio."  He specialized in baby pictures.  In 1946 he was the first photographer in the country to photograph new born babies.  The invention of strobe flash allowed photographing babies without using hot bright lights. 

I attended the Dayton Art Institute when I was ten years old. My dad loved art and we made visits to the Cincinnati Art Museum about twice a year until he died.  Dad knew every picture in the museum.  I started working at his studio in 1950, after school.  In 1957 I attended Winona, a photography school run by the Professional Photographers of America, in Winona Lake Indiana.  Winona was a summer school and I went several summers.  In the 1950s I did a lot of underwater photography and built custom underwater camera cases.

In the 1960s I operated a B&W Pro lab that did work for other studios in Ohio and Indiana.  In 1976 I went to work for Lancelot Advertising Agency in Covington, Ohio.  I ran the photography and litho departments. In the 1980s I served a year as president of the Professional Photographers of Southwest Ohio. 

In the early 1970s I started  Erie Sailboat Company. We built a small 17' cruising sailboat, the ERIE 17 that would sleep two. The boats were strong and sailed very good. The first boat we built was trailed to Florida by Al Butterfield and sailed to the Bahamas. In the second picture from the left Al Butterfield, Alex Shartle and Henry Reigelsperger are standing by Al`s Erie 17. Not shown, Joe Kuhel, was also a big help at Erie Sailboats. The Erie 17's have sailed the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay. In the early 1970's there was an oil crisis and oil prices when through the roof.[ polyester resin is made from oil ]  Our costs went up and boat sales were slow because interest rates for boat loans were very high. We went out of business. But we did have a good time sailing our boats. All the boats we built are still sailing - after 30 years.

In the 80s I joined the Tripod Camera Club in Dayton Ohio.  Tripod is an old club with a lot of great photographers.  I learned a lot from them.  In the mid 1980s I took a course in Special Effect Photography at the Leech Friends of the Arts Center in Sarasota.  The course was taught by Pete Carmichael.  Pete was a great influence on my photography.  I continue my interest in Special Effect to the present.  A few years ago  I attended a Jerry Uelsmann  workshop at Palm Beach Photography Workshops.  Jerry has always been one of my favorite photographers.  I believe he is one of the greatest living photographers. I now belong to the National Association of Professional Photoshop User, Photographic Society of America, Suncoast Camera Club in Bradenton, FL, Digital Photo Artists and Dimage digital imaging club.  As of 2003 I serve as president of Digital Photo Artists Sarasota/Bradenton. DPA is a small group of advanced Adobe Photoshop users and Digital Artists. Let`s face it I am a joiner!!!

Studio - 28 W. Elder St

Findlay Market Photos

Al Butterfield

On the 1st of Sept 1982 I opened Findlay Market Photos in Cincinnati. Findlay Market is one of the oldest markets in the US. The market neighborhood has over 20000 people living in high rise buildings surrounding the market. My studio was only open the first week of every month. Most of the customers were on welfare. Al Butterfield helped me on busy days. Al also helped me build the 70mm Koverflex camera. The Koverflex was a Mamiyaflex with a 70mm film back. I also used the Koverflex for shooting Dance School pictures up to 2003. [ I switched to all digital shooting in July of 2003]. After operating Findlay Market Photos for five years I sold the studio to my friend Terry Chandler and his wife Mary ran it for another 5 years.

In the early 1990s I saw a demonstration of Adobe`s Photoshop at a PSA convention in Atlanta.  I was amazed and hooked.  I got a computer a year later and started doing Special Effects using the computer.

I use a custom computer that has a 3 gigahertz  Intel Pentium 4 CPU - two 19" monitors - Windows XP  - two internal hard drives -160 gig and 250 gig with 3072 megabytes of ram  - Sony CD writer - Wacom pen. I also have a HP notebook for previewing images and burning CDs on the road or giving digital presentations using my Canon digital projector.

In July of 2000 I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon 990. It took good pictures and I liked the small size. I did not like going through menus to make simple changes. My next digital camera was the Canon G1 which I had for a month. This was followed by an Olympus E10. The E 10 is an excellent camera, but I missed having interchangeable lens so in June of 2001 I bought a Canon D 30. In December of 2002 I bought a Canon D60. The D60 has twice the resolution of the D30. It also allows more in camera control of images. I have several lens. My favorites are the Sigma 15-30 mm and the Tamron 28-300mm lens.  In 2004 I sold my D60 and bought two Digital Rebels and added a Canon 18-55mm lens. I like the 18-55 because it is light weight and is good for events. In 2005 I replaced the Rebel with the 8 megapixel Canon Rebel XT. The XT is fast in operation and the image quality at ISO 800 and 1600 is very good. I also added a Tamron 75-300mm telephoto which I like. In September 2006 I replaced the Canon Rebel XT with the 10 megapixel Rebel XTi. I replaced the kit lens with a Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 lens.

United States Power - I joined the Dayton Squadron in my twenties. I taught Advanced Piloting, served as Public Relations Officer, editor of the Squadron newsletter the BINNACLE and in 1976 was Commander. In about 1987 I moved to Sarasota and joined the Sarasota Squadron. I became the editor of District 22`s newsletter for four years. I am now the editor of the South Wind the Squadron newsletter. I enjoy doing newsletters - although I am a poor speller. In November of 2003 we changed doing the newsletter from cut and paste which I had done for 35 years to electronic publishing using Adobe`s InDesign CS2. I can now add pictures with ease. Thanks to Inge August and Spell Check my spelling is better !

The New Digital Age has Arrived !
click on the Nikon

This site was made using MS Front Page.  The images were created using Adobe Photoshop.  Animated Gifs were made in Adobe Image Ready.  I want to thank Mike Gates, Stan Ashbrook and Cory Williams for their help in building this site.

Windows XP allows using two monitors-19" NEC and 19" View Sonic, The NEC is used for the image and View Sonic for Photoshop pallets.

MEMBER

click to enter

INDEX