About Me

Landscape and portrait photographer, David E. Warner captures the breath-taking beauty of the Mohawk Valley and Southern Adirondacks Texas with his mastery of color, composition & light. He also captures the profiles of the unique people that live in each of these regions through his “Signature Series” of painted portraits.

Artist Statement

I love to find the art in an image. Often, photography is approached in a very literal way. For instance, in portrait photography, you pose the person, take the shot and move to the next. Over time it becomes very routine and very predictable. Even with today’s ‘edgy’ style of photography, it tends to look the same, from photographer to photographer’s site.

I continuously strive to capture the true essence of a person and the situation by looking beyond what is obvious and exploring how shadow and light artfully plays within an image to create a truly exceptional result. Great portraits happen when the person you are photographing is so relaxed that they reveal more of who they are than what they intended.

Many times I don’t realize how great a shot is until I get into the digital darkroom. This is when experience and technical ability pays off. It enables me to constantly push the envelope in photography to transform great portraits AND landscapes into fine art images.

The Early Days

In 1976, Dave entered into a partnership with another photographer to open a portrait studio called Double Exposures. The plan was that Warner would do all of the darkroom work, while the partner, a seasoned photographer, would take all the pictures. This arrangement worked well for almost a year – until the first photo competition. Warner swept each category, which, needless to say, ultimately ended the partnership. For the next nine years, Warner became one of the most recognizable photographers in South Central Texas and in many Air Force publications and competitions. Photojournalism assignments, weddings, and portraits kept Warner busy. His two children – Kimberly and her brother Jason, became the models for many of his photo shoots.

However, the more Warner worked with his camera, the more passionate he became about transitioning from just another photographer to a fine art photographer. His vision was to capture landscapes, people and architecture in a way that hadn’t been seen before, using the latest camera technology coupled with his mastery of darkroom lighting techniques to create images that would stop people in their tracks. However, in 1983, life took Dave away from the camera for almost 14 years.

During that time, Dave watched the technology revolution occurring in photography, photo manipulation software and the new digital cameras and printers. During his off years, he read everything he could get his hands on and worked with the software that was evolving. Whenever he did work with his cameras, he continued to use the name Double Exposures.

By 2003 the tug of photography and the unfulfilled desire to create his fine art landscapes and portraits became such a driving force, that he and his wife moved to Galveston to open Bremond House Gallery, where he could display his work under the name David Warner Studio.

His landscape and nature photography quickly gained regional as well as national interest. The exuberance he felt in achieving one of his lifelong dreams created a desire to get back into the commercial realm to put all his knowledge to the test.

The hurricanes at the end of 2005, convinced Dave that Galveston was just not the right spot, so with his wife Deborah, and Springer Spaniel Baxter, they packed up and moved to Elgin, Texas. They immediately converted a building behind their house into a 1,600 square foot studio. Dave worked on his photography, as well as reproductions for other artists. They also moved Bremond House Gallery to Main Street in Elgin.

Once again, life intervened and at the end of 2008, Dave and his family moved to the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. For a fine art landscape photographer, this was like heaven, and many of his images are now from the Adirondack National Park. And for those of you who are wondering why Upstate NY? Well, Deborah is from the area, so they bought a house on Spruce Lake right next to family.