First published in Sea Magazine, May 2007
By Shelly Randall
When commercial photographer Michael Berman
and his wife Jan moved from New Jersey to Wash-
ington state in 2005, tops on the transition list was
finding a new boat.
They had left behind a Cape Dory 33, a fiberglass
sailing cruiser they’d piloted as far as the Bahamas, and a Boston Whaler 17 they’d used for
on-the-water photo shoots. Their new Northwest boat had to combine the best of both these
vessels, the Bermans decided. Maneuverability for the marine photography Michael wanted
to pursue and a cruising cabin for longer, self-selected assignments away from their new
home in Port Ludlow.
“We decided not to buy another sailboat, but a motorboat so we could live aboard
comfortably for a week or two at a time,” Michael explains.
Their eventual pick: a 26-foot Tollycraft Sedan they purchased in the spring of last year and
hauled out for six weeks of fiberglass restoration work on the 1977 hull. The roomy cabin
contains a small galley, settee, forward berth and head, plus an enclosed steering station.
However, Jan, 51, prefers to steer from the flying bridge while Michael, 52, aims his camera
seaward.
Last July the Bermans put their Tolly to the test, shooting the week-long Captain Raynaud
International Schooner Race (CRISR) in the Canadian Gulf Islands. They captured nearly
800 images and staged a well-received dockside slideshow on their laptop at the end of the
race.
“It’s a perfect little photo boat for that kind of regatta,” Michael says. “We could run alongside
the fleet all day, looking for that perfect photograph.”
Thus the boat’s name, cheerfully inscribed on a swoosh of sprocket-lined film: ImageMaker.
Shooting motorboats
The film graphic is a throwback to the earlier days of Michael Berman Photography, since
Michael started making the shift to digital photography in 2000 and sold his black-&-white
darkroom equipment and cameras concurrent with his move across the country. He now uses
a Nikon D2X, makes image adjustments in Photoshop, and generates archival-quality prints
on an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 digital pigment printer.
The Bermans opened a photo studio not long after they were married in 1981. The wedding
was six months after their first meeting at Utah State University, where Jan was an
undergraduate studying photography and Michael was a graduate student in wildlife science
who was more interested in photographing wildlife than writing a thesis on the subject.
The Bermans settled in Jan’s home state of New Jersey and built their commercial
photography business shooting such diverse subjects as industrial glassware, medical
equipment and a Christmas decorations catalog. Then they gained clients among the
motorboat manufacturers that line the Jersey Shore, doing work over the years for Viking
Yachts, Ocean Yachts, Silverton Marine and Post Yachts.
Jan—the sales rep, photography assistant and stylist of the duo—explains how she and
Michael entered the crowded field of marine photography. “We started off doing boat
interiors, which are less desirable, as a way to get our foot in the door,” she says. “Before
digital photography, the shots were much trickier. We had to get up at dawn to get the pink
glow outside the windows—the light couldn’t be too dark or too bright.”
Michael is a life-long sailor, so he had the instincts for photographing boats. But by working
as a commercial marine photographer, he learned how to “make boats look truly good.” Soon
the Bermans were picking up magazine feature assignments, photographing the Flying
Dutchman Worlds and the Chesapeake Bay log canoe racing season for SAILING, and
seeing their editorial photographs published in Yachting, Motor Boating, and Power and
Motoryacht.
Top dinghy competitor
As an international sailing competitor, Michael’s racing knowledge came in handy on these
assignments. Growing up in Los Angeles, he was exposed to sailing at an early age and soon
found he had a natural ability for it. As a young teen, he loved nothing more than to rent a
boat by the hour at Marina del Rey and practice sailing upwind.
Starting in high school, Michael owned a series of racing dinghies and raced actively in area
regattas. His first job was washing boats; his second was apprenticing as a sailmaker with
Sails by Watts, at the time one of the top sailmakers on the west coast.
Michael had a part-time job making sails for four years, continuing through his first two years
of college. But when he had to make a choice between a career in the marine trades or
continuing his education, school won out.
Once he was settled on the New Jersey coast with Jan (a reluctant sailor, she readily admits),
Michael got on the GP14 racing circuit and worked his way up through the fleet of these
British-designed “General Purpose” dinghies. In 1988 he and his teammate won the national
competition and flew to Ireland to compete in the GP14 Worlds. They won the “Top Overseas
Competitor” award, and for the next few years the two men accepted invitations to compete in
the annual U.S. Championship of Champions regattas.
Shift to schooners
The Bermans’ recent move to the Northwest has led to a shift in subject matter for Michael
Berman Photography.
“Since we’ve moved here, we’ve really been concentrating on black-&-white, fine-art marine
photography,” Michael says. And not photographs of just any old boats, but the classic
schooners for which these waters are famous.
“Schooners are probably the most photogenic boat,” says Michael, rhapsodizing. “There are
so many shapes that all the sails can make.” And although he has nothing against fiberglass,
having never owned a boat that wasn’t crafted from it, he has a soft spot for wooden boats.
“There’s an aesthetic appeal to wood; it’s not all about speed,” he says.
Last September Michael was invited to exhibit his work alongside local photographer
Elizabeth Becker at the annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, an opportunity he
couldn’t pass up but which he admits he wasn’t quite ready for. He and Jan spent the entire
month of August printing the best images from his Northwest wooden boat collection.
The effort paid off. The festival show was a success and this February one of Michael’s
photos of the schooner Alcyone won first place at the peer-reviewed JVH Digital Festival
photo competition in Bellevue, Wash.
Michael is now represented by The Art Mine Gallery in Port Hadlock (www.theartmine.com),
and he and Jan are busy entering his schooner images into shows around the country.
One of them is featured in this very issue, accompanying the article on the schooner Martha’
s centennial. See more at www.michaelbermanphotography.com.
And as long as ImageMaker provides a floating platform from which to shoot the Northwest’s
classic vessels, there will be more to come.
To obtain reprint rights for this article, contact author Shelly Randall.
By Shelly Randall
When commercial photographer Michael Berman
and his wife Jan moved from New Jersey to Wash-
ington state in 2005, tops on the transition list was
finding a new boat.
They had left behind a Cape Dory 33, a fiberglass
sailing cruiser they’d piloted as far as the Bahamas, and a Boston Whaler 17 they’d used for
on-the-water photo shoots. Their new Northwest boat had to combine the best of both these
vessels, the Bermans decided. Maneuverability for the marine photography Michael wanted
to pursue and a cruising cabin for longer, self-selected assignments away from their new
home in Port Ludlow.
“We decided not to buy another sailboat, but a motorboat so we could live aboard
comfortably for a week or two at a time,” Michael explains.
Their eventual pick: a 26-foot Tollycraft Sedan they purchased in the spring of last year and
hauled out for six weeks of fiberglass restoration work on the 1977 hull. The roomy cabin
contains a small galley, settee, forward berth and head, plus an enclosed steering station.
However, Jan, 51, prefers to steer from the flying bridge while Michael, 52, aims his camera
seaward.
Last July the Bermans put their Tolly to the test, shooting the week-long Captain Raynaud
International Schooner Race (CRISR) in the Canadian Gulf Islands. They captured nearly
800 images and staged a well-received dockside slideshow on their laptop at the end of the
race.
“It’s a perfect little photo boat for that kind of regatta,” Michael says. “We could run alongside
the fleet all day, looking for that perfect photograph.”
Thus the boat’s name, cheerfully inscribed on a swoosh of sprocket-lined film: ImageMaker.
Shooting motorboats
The film graphic is a throwback to the earlier days of Michael Berman Photography, since
Michael started making the shift to digital photography in 2000 and sold his black-&-white
darkroom equipment and cameras concurrent with his move across the country. He now uses
a Nikon D2X, makes image adjustments in Photoshop, and generates archival-quality prints
on an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 digital pigment printer.
The Bermans opened a photo studio not long after they were married in 1981. The wedding
was six months after their first meeting at Utah State University, where Jan was an
undergraduate studying photography and Michael was a graduate student in wildlife science
who was more interested in photographing wildlife than writing a thesis on the subject.
The Bermans settled in Jan’s home state of New Jersey and built their commercial
photography business shooting such diverse subjects as industrial glassware, medical
equipment and a Christmas decorations catalog. Then they gained clients among the
motorboat manufacturers that line the Jersey Shore, doing work over the years for Viking
Yachts, Ocean Yachts, Silverton Marine and Post Yachts.
Jan—the sales rep, photography assistant and stylist of the duo—explains how she and
Michael entered the crowded field of marine photography. “We started off doing boat
interiors, which are less desirable, as a way to get our foot in the door,” she says. “Before
digital photography, the shots were much trickier. We had to get up at dawn to get the pink
glow outside the windows—the light couldn’t be too dark or too bright.”
Michael is a life-long sailor, so he had the instincts for photographing boats. But by working
as a commercial marine photographer, he learned how to “make boats look truly good.” Soon
the Bermans were picking up magazine feature assignments, photographing the Flying
Dutchman Worlds and the Chesapeake Bay log canoe racing season for SAILING, and
seeing their editorial photographs published in Yachting, Motor Boating, and Power and
Motoryacht.
Top dinghy competitor
As an international sailing competitor, Michael’s racing knowledge came in handy on these
assignments. Growing up in Los Angeles, he was exposed to sailing at an early age and soon
found he had a natural ability for it. As a young teen, he loved nothing more than to rent a
boat by the hour at Marina del Rey and practice sailing upwind.
Starting in high school, Michael owned a series of racing dinghies and raced actively in area
regattas. His first job was washing boats; his second was apprenticing as a sailmaker with
Sails by Watts, at the time one of the top sailmakers on the west coast.
Michael had a part-time job making sails for four years, continuing through his first two years
of college. But when he had to make a choice between a career in the marine trades or
continuing his education, school won out.
Once he was settled on the New Jersey coast with Jan (a reluctant sailor, she readily admits),
Michael got on the GP14 racing circuit and worked his way up through the fleet of these
British-designed “General Purpose” dinghies. In 1988 he and his teammate won the national
competition and flew to Ireland to compete in the GP14 Worlds. They won the “Top Overseas
Competitor” award, and for the next few years the two men accepted invitations to compete in
the annual U.S. Championship of Champions regattas.
Shift to schooners
The Bermans’ recent move to the Northwest has led to a shift in subject matter for Michael
Berman Photography.
“Since we’ve moved here, we’ve really been concentrating on black-&-white, fine-art marine
photography,” Michael says. And not photographs of just any old boats, but the classic
schooners for which these waters are famous.
“Schooners are probably the most photogenic boat,” says Michael, rhapsodizing. “There are
so many shapes that all the sails can make.” And although he has nothing against fiberglass,
having never owned a boat that wasn’t crafted from it, he has a soft spot for wooden boats.
“There’s an aesthetic appeal to wood; it’s not all about speed,” he says.
Last September Michael was invited to exhibit his work alongside local photographer
Elizabeth Becker at the annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, an opportunity he
couldn’t pass up but which he admits he wasn’t quite ready for. He and Jan spent the entire
month of August printing the best images from his Northwest wooden boat collection.
The effort paid off. The festival show was a success and this February one of Michael’s
photos of the schooner Alcyone won first place at the peer-reviewed JVH Digital Festival
photo competition in Bellevue, Wash.
Michael is now represented by The Art Mine Gallery in Port Hadlock (www.theartmine.com),
and he and Jan are busy entering his schooner images into shows around the country.
One of them is featured in this very issue, accompanying the article on the schooner Martha’
s centennial. See more at www.michaelbermanphotography.com.
And as long as ImageMaker provides a floating platform from which to shoot the Northwest’s
classic vessels, there will be more to come.
To obtain reprint rights for this article, contact author Shelly Randall.
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Michael & Jan Berman:
ImageMakers afloat
ImageMakers afloat
| All copy and photos contained within this web site (c) Shelly Randall 2005-10 unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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