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   A child of the 60s- Star Trek, Lost in Space, 2001: a Space Odyssey, Apollo launches at dawn. Like many of our time, Warren boldly went with his heroes ‘Where no man [had] gone before.’ He never really touched-down again. As vice-president of his middle school astronomy club, he owned an 8" Newtonian telescope and began exploring the night sky at 15-years old. By college however, the sky was forgotten for a career in music, most nights playing in bright-city venues, far from the dark skies of his youth in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. Warren was a recording, performing, and teaching musician the first half of his life, and is a multi-published Nashville songwriter. Not until Christmas of 1997, when he received a gift of a star chart and modest achromatic telescope was the passion re-ignited. He says 'When I was a child, I was gifted with Dr. Fred Hoyle's book 'Astronomy' ('Coiner' of the term 'Big Bang'). Its cover had the glossiest, full-color photo of M57- the Ring Nebula in the blackest, velvet sky. I knew from that moment I must someday photograph the heavens’ wonders.’ Warren’s artful work is displayed at http://www.BillionsandBillions.com, homage to the late Dr. Carl Sagan of Cosmos fame. Beginning with 35mm film in 1998, Warren switched to digital 'CCD' cameras in 2003. Artistic by nature, highly technical aspects of the hobby were initially challenging. For him, it’s less about Cosmology and 'Charge Coupled Devices', and more about the thrill of the hunt for the myriad of beautiful shapes and colors throughout the universe. Warren has the unique ability to reduce the difficult concepts of Astro-Imaging to the essentials and effectively teach it to others. His Astrophoto tutorial business IP4AP (http://www.IP4AP.com) was named a Sky & Telescope Magazine ‘Hot Product’ in 2007, and he has given hundreds of clients the world over, a 'quick start' to taking their own great photos. It is his desire to convince new imagers that they can accomplish anything they want in amateur Astrophotography. He also strives to emphasize the importance of artfulness in a largely left-brained hobby, and has a background in communications and art history from The American University in Washington, DC. Warren is proud to have been published as a photographer in: Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Amateur Astronomy, and Pennsylvania Magazines, and many places on the World Wide Web, most prestigiously- NASA’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). Warren writes extensively for AstroPhoto Insight, and is list owner/moderator of SXV-OSC, a user group for owners of One-Shot-Color CCD cameras (includes DSLRs) at Yahoo! Groups. Warren lectures and leads workshops at the North East Astro-Imaging Conference in New York, the Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference in Chicago, and the Advanced Imaging Conference in San Jose. He has presented at the Black Forest Star Party, and to groups as varied as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Chambers of Commerce, Rotaries, and camera clubs.... and at the Hidden Hollow 2009 Star Party! See you there!  And you can meet Warren in advance here... ^ ;) |
