About Us
AK1 Photo
Photography offers photographers and observers alike, wonderful opportunities to capture and share the world around us on film and digital media. We have been very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time to capture these images. We sincerely hope that you enjoy this sampling of our photographs. We are pleased to share with you these "beautiful truths" as captured by AK1 Photo.
The Team
Although each has a unique style and unique to photography, Jane and Robert have the ability to meld their styles, thoughts, and diversity into a final product that has a depth and feel that that is greater than the sum total of its parts. The richness of their photography is a result of the synergistic energy that lies beneath each photo. We feel that you will enjoy the resulting art.
Today, there are many “buzz words" concerning the service providers brings to the table. In fact, it goes back to the old fashioned values that have been successful since man began providing products and services to a client base: excellence, creativity, innovation, and putting the client first. The synergistic energy that Robert and Jane bring to the table is awesome. Their pursuit of excellence and their caring for, and about, their clients is evident in their work.
Robert McCullar
Robert’s interest in photography stems first from his love of nature and the out-of-doors, and secondly from his desire to satisfy his right-brain creativity. Growing up on a small farm in north Mississippi, Robert learned early on to appreciate the order of nature, from the crops that he helped plant and harvest, the animals that he tended, the fish that he caught and the wildlife that he hunted. There was something fascinating about putting a small seed in the ground, nurturing it and watching it grow to maturity. Fascinating, too, were the fish and wildlife found in the streams and huge forests of virgin timber surrounding the family farm.
But the family farm could not hold him. Eventually he left the farm for college, earning a degree in accounting from Mississippi State University.
For many years, Robert’s office was located adjacent to Earl Roberts Photography Studio in Eufaula,Alabama. Earl and Robert became close friends, and an interest in photography was born. Although Earl never made the transition to digital, some of his film techniques apply equally as well to digital photography; techniques that Robert uses today. Art is art, irregardless of the medium, and Earl was a photographer’s photographer.
The creative impulses have been satisfied over the years by Robert’s woodworking pursuits, especially woodturning. His vases, bowls and other turned pieces have been sold on-line and in galleries in the southeastern United States. Creating interesting photos of these pieces for posting on the web required application of some of Earl’s techniques, and the photography bug took a huge bite.
Today, the camera goes practically everywhere that Robert goes. When he is not shooting photos for a project, he is taking them for fun. The guns that he used for hunting during his youth have been replaced by super-telephoto lenses; his hunting vests for a camera backpack. Robert uses state-of-the-art Canon digital equipment, including the Canon 1Ds Mark II camera body and an arsenal of prime lenses. Coupled with state-of-the art post-processing techniques, the resulting photos have found themselves on the covers of periodicals, on corporate websites, and in competitions among his peers. The gallery contains a few examples. Enjoy!
Jane Burns McCullar
As a young girl, Jane never considered herself to be creative or artistic. Artistically, to this day, it would be extremely dangerous to hand her a paintbrush. Painting with light, as Fred Miranda describes photography, is a different matter. Photography stimulates and challenges Jane in many areas. Her passion for learning is at the top of the things that make life meaningful for her. The technological aspects of digital photography satisfies her analytical side and her passion for the “latest and greatest” in the digital arena. She has developed her creative side; thus, you will see that most of the abstracts are her work. She also has a child-like wonderment for all things natural.
Photography has been the stimulus for capturing the beauty in the ordinary and the extraordinary things in our world. She has a passion for being outside—hearing the ocean, the wind in the trees, the babbling of a creek, and the songs of the birds and frogs. Photography, for her, tends to be an outside activity, capturing the world as it is painted by the Master Painter.
The spiritual and metaphysical side is also nourished. Many times, Sunday worship is in a tree-formed chapel. Camera in hand, walking about is a great time for walking meditations and experiencing the Divine.
It is also a treasured activity that she shares with her partner, Robert. It introduces them to many things, large and small that they would not have taken the time for pre-photography. It has also introduced them to many wonderful people along their path. Many of their projects, in particular, Their Faces have initiated dialogues with persons they would never have met otherwise.
Jane, the photographer, is focused, challenged, and thoughtful. Her wonderful life is shared not only with a wonderful partner, but a wonderful passion. Look deep into her photos, and you will find her. |