Meet John Diehl

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Diehl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.

John, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Much of my early experience in the world of work was in the HVAC trade. My father was in the trade and I started as a helper on those late night, middle of winder “emergency” no-heat calls. I went on to attend a trade school and got my HVAC certificate. For many installation jobs I would be dropped off at the site with a load of equipment, supplies and tools. The Boss (Dad) was not due back for hours, at which time the entire job needed to be finished. And it was all on me. I learned to take pride in every project, not just to get it working but to make it look good and professional. I also had to learn early on how to make do with what I had on hand. (Part way through almost every job I would come up missing some part or tool.) Every job had some unique problems to solve. But every single one had to look good and work right!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My primary professional focus for many years was as a Software Engineer and college professor. Today I consider myself semi-retired and teach only part time. My main creative passion now is photography. While it began long ago as a hobby, over they years it has grown to become an important part of who I am. I have sold some of my work, but am not focused on building a business so much as exploring the art. I enjoy portraiture as well as architecture, always looking for unique views of my subjects. But what most excites me today is Painting With Light, also known as Light Art Performance Photography. The basic concept is to use long exposures in low light settings while moving about with lighted objects which effectively allow you to sculpt images with light. One thing that is so captivating about light art is that even when you have a good concept of how an image will turn out, it is so often amazing to see the beauty that is actually captured by the camera.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I am fully self-taught as a photographer, but I learned early on that I was good at finding a viewpoint that was different from what others generally saw. Often I have photographed at events and later showed my shots to others who attended and was told, “I never saw that!” One simple technique I came up with that has served me greatly is this: when looking through the camera viewer, scan around all of the edges of the frame and for everything you see, ask yourself the question, “Do I want that in my shot?” Doing so, you almost always end up zooming in closer. I have found that when photographing people, the most important thing is to engage with your subject. Do not hide behind the camera, but be there with them, whether in the studio or on the street. Informal portraiture is all about capturing who the individual is, not who they think they must pretend to be for the camera.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

Having skills beyond the core required by your profession helps you to see a wider scope and understand more broadly what you are doing and how it affects your clients. When I worked as a software engineer, I met a good many developers who where astounding at how quickly they can develop code that is solid and dependable. What surprised me was how so many of them are poor at imagining what is best for people to use. i.e. they are good at talking to the machine, but not so good at communicating with people, in person or through the machine. I will always remember the first time another engineer asked me to meet with his customers to talk about the design and function of his project. The more areas of expertise you have, the more viewpoints you will have on any project you undertake, and the better you will be at putting them together for the final result.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://johndiehl.com/