about

Hi, I’m Joe valentine

I’m a photographer living in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, the Monadnock region of southern New Hampshire.  With my wife, Paula and our eight-year-old Welsh Corgi, Christina, we live on a small farm that’s been in existence since before the Revolutionary War.  When we moved here, twenty-five years ago, we began the restoration of the small farm house on the property which was built in 1789, the same year that George Washington was elected president.  Once much of the restoration of the house was done (Spoiler: In a 230 year-old house restoration is NEVER done) we created almost two-acres of English style gardens to surround the house.

Ok…that’s nice but how did you get into photography?

I have no formal training in either photography, art, or design.  I have a Ph.D. in Biopsychology and for many years worked as a researcher and consultant in both academics and industry.  But, I have almost always had a camera in my hand.  I can remember my parents giving me my first camera when I was about ten or eleven.  Well, actually…it wasn’t formally given to me.  I sort of commandeered it since I was the only one in the family who took the time to figure out how to work it.  It was a Polaroid 95B, one of those first “bellows type” polaroids.  The first camera I bought on my own as a kid was a very strange “stereo” camera that I purchased from my uncle for a pittance.  It was manufactured by the David White Company and shot 35mm slides through two separate lenses.  The slides were then processed to fit into a special viewer which gave the images a 3-D effect.  To be honest, I think I bought the camera because I was attracted more to the leather case and its beautiful patina rather than the camera itself.  Then there was a  Yashica 635 followed by my first SLR, the Canon AE-1. Both of which I still have. 

Enough History…Fast Forward

Fast forward to present day when I’m retired from the world of biomedicine, now living in a digital world (no, forget what you’ve heard…film isn’t completely dead), and seem to be constantly fighting off a camera gear addiction.  Photography, along with gardening, have become full-time passions.  And, for me, the two are often intertwined as you’ll find out if you follow me here on my website and on social media.

Gardens, Plants, Cameras and Blogs

To get back to the house and garden for a minute…Once we began the initial design of our garden, it came together fairly quickly and after several years started to gain some small measure of notoriety through events that we hosted with organizations such as The Garden Conservancy.  The garden not only brings so many pleasures on its own but also serves as an ersatz photographic laboratory for me, where I can try out creative ideas.  I began writing a gardening blog in 2011 that is now archived but still accessible. Through the magic of the internet, magazine editors began to notice some of my work, especially as it related to our own garden and this was essentially the launch of a second career as a commercial photographer.

 What’s My Niche?

Most of my commercial and editorial work has been centered on garden and landscape photography but I’m way too curious to ignore other genres, as you’ll see if you have a look around this website.  I’ll talk more about genres, niches, styles and branding in upcoming blog posts.  Unlike my first website which was very “blog-centric” and focused heavily on gardening, this new version is definitely more “photo-centric” with an emphasis on photography, especially the genres of garden, landscape, portrait and street. This not only reflects my current interests but is also apparently in sync with the more “visually interested” younger generation.