Below are some of our photographic professionals that will be leading or co-leading some of the tours we offer. Please read a little about them and their accomplishments and get in touch with them in order to get a clear understanding of what they are about and what they will be concentrating on while leading the tours.
Sergio Ballivian
I have been making images for over 30 years. At first it was about intrigue and the magic of the photograph. It soon became a way to remember the great experiences and mis-adventures I had along the way. I was always more inclined to head to the creek and play with the tadpoles and turtles than to head to the disco and spend money on a fashion statement. I studied Outdoor Pursuits (don’t laugh) at the University of Calgary and learned to ‘properly’ climb, kayak, navigate, plan, execute expeditons and get into trouble ice climbing. I worked in a professional photo store in Washington DC for a few years then got a job at National Geographic in the Photo Dept. where I worked closely with the technical experts as part of the support staff as well as many extremely talented photographers who were off in all directions around the globe. A few years into my stint in the equipment room I started my own adventure travel company called Explore Bolivia in order to make sure I was traveling and exploring and making images just like them. One day I flew the coop and headed down to Bolivia to run and expand my company. Currently, I am, living in Boulder, Colorado still chasing adventures and following the dreams. I am blessed to know many fine people in the adventure travel and photographic world. I have shot for editorial and commercial clients and am represented by a few stock agencies. I look forward to leading private photo tours and I have handled complex and long-term photo, video and documentary projects in Bolivia, Chile and Peru. If you read this far you probably figured out this is my calling. Please join us when you can.
Joanna B. Pinneo
http://joannabpinneo.photoshelter.com/portfolio
A Pulitzer nominee and winner of the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, Joanna Pinneo has been a photojournalist for more than twenty-five years, nine of those years for National Geographic Magazine. Joanna has published assignments from work in 65 countries and her photograph of a Tuareg family, napping in the sand of Africa, graces the cover of the book, Women Photographers at National Geographic as well as the cover of the May 1998 National Geographic Magazine.
Joanna’s ongoing collection of photo essays documenting girls coming of age in America earned Joanna the 14th Nikon Documentary Sabbatical.
Her work has appeared in numerous book collections including Women In the Material World, 100 Best Pictures by the National Geographic, Proud Nations, and on the cover of America at Home. Magazines include LIFE, the New York Times Magazine, Time, Geo, Stern, U.S. News & World Report & American Photographer among others. Described as sensitive, intuitive and present, Joanna’s strength is in photographing the intimate details of daily life and working in a variety of cultures. She is represented by Aurora Photos, and makes her home in Longmont, Colorado.
Corey Hendrickson
http://www.coreyhendrickson.com/
I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. At the University of Vermont I earned a B.S. in Forest Biology and worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado and Alaska. After college I worked as a wildland firefighter on the Pike Hotshots, spending winter off-seasons in Utah and the French Alps. After visiting the Grand Teton National Park on a fire assignment, I moved to Jackson Wyoming and began working as a photographer. I received my M.F.A. in photography from the Academy of Art University in 2009. I now live in central VT with my dog Jake. I work throughout New England photographing environmental portraits and travel stories.
Raymond Gehman
From the time the National Geographic photographer came to my fourth grade career day I wanted to be a photographer. I studied fine art photography for three years at Northern Virginia Community College and then earned a degree in photojournalism from the renowned School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. I then worked for 11 years as a newspaper photojournalist in Montana and Virginia after which I landed my first National Geographic assignment in 1988. While shooting that assignment on Yellowstone Country, I knew that my calling was to photograph the extraordinary natural world. One of my unparalleled assignments was spending six weeks in Belize on assignment for National Geographic Magazine documenting a story about archeologists who were exploring ancient Mayan ruins in the rugged jungle-covered Maya Mountains. I photographed the daily life of the Maya people in small remote villages and the natural landscapes and wildlife of the coastal plains and mountains. I trekked for two weeks through the dense jungles of the Maya Mountains and lived for a week underground in caves in search of ancient, undiscovered historic ritual sites and artifacts used by this advanced civilization. I have also trekked deep into Wyoming’s Bighorn Country, journeyed through the Sanibel Island Gulf Coast of Florida, walked a good slice of the the Canadian Rockies, was dazzled by Icelandic glaciers and icebergs and was shooting in rural China during the 50th anniversary celebration of the People’s Republic. I have photographed grizzly bears, the aftermath of hurricanes, hot pools that can boil a drifting duck and nocturnal Apache ceremonial dancers. I teach Photoshop and photography classes at the Palm Beach Photo Center during part of the year and I lead photographic tours in the Canadian Rockies on horseback during the summer. I live a blessed life as long as I am outdoors making photos.
Medford Taylor
Medford Taylor was born in North Carolina in 1939. He grew up in the small town of Conway and graduated with a BS (pre-med/biology) from High Point University. After five years active duty as a U.S. Navy officer he attended the Univ. of Missouri Photojournalism Workshop. The workshop was a life-changing event. At its conclusion, he knew he would be a photographer for life. In 1968 he abandoned the classroom of the Univ. of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism to photograph the Poor People’s March from Marks, Mississippi. He then joined the staff of the Houston Chronicle and later was staff photographer at the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk.
Since 1974 he has worked on assignment for TIME Magazine, Newsweek,
GEO, Air & Space Magazine, National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic Traveler. His photographs have been published in books and periodicals thru out the world. He has received awards from the Virginia News Photographers Assoc., the White House news Photographers Assoc. and the Slover Award from the Virginian Pilot. His National Geographic story on Australia’s ‘Dog Fence’ was exhibited at Visa pour L’Image in Perpignon, France in 1997. In 2002 he published his first book, Saltwater Cowboys: A Photographic Essay of Chincoteague Island.
In September-October 2009, his most recent work, Silent Journey, was a solo exhibition at the Babcock Fine Arts Center Gallery at Sweet Briar College, Amherst, Virginia. Silent Journey is a work in progress on the interdependent culture of the state of Michoacán, Mexico and it’s monarch butterfly sanctuaries. He received a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in October 2009.
He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Celin Serbo
Celin is a commercial and editorial photographer based in Boulder, CO. Coming from a rich background in outdoor sports, his work focuses on capturing outdoor adventure and the lifestyles surrounding it. His photography career began while working as an AMGA certified mountain guide in Colorado, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. Well versed in adventure travel, he has lead 15 international climbing expeditions to some of the highest peaks in the western hemisphere.
Celin’s client list includes some of the most reputable companies in the outdoor industry such as Patagonia, Nikon, Eddie Bauer/First Ascent, New Balance, ESPN the Magazine, and National Geographic Adventure. His work has received several awards with the most recent being first place in the 2009 Advertising Photographers of America Awards and honorable mention in the 2010 Banff Film Festival Photo Competition.
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If you have any questions, comments or suggestions feel free to contact us directly via phone at 303-545-5728 (Office), 303-808-7713 (mobile) or via e-mail at phototours@sergiophototours.com
