Photographic Arts by Dennis M. Bettin  About the Artist

Dennis M. Bettin is a photographer/artist living and working in Milwaukee area (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). The images produced here represent years of fine art shooting and is a small part of the total work I have done.

First, I have two college degrees, one in Computer Programming and a second degree in Photography. My main profession is computer programming; this is where I make my money so that I can pay for my photography (among other things).

Photography is a love of mine. I am not a professional photographer. Instead photography is something I enjoy and love. As I have stated, I have a degree in photography and have attended many photographic workshops (Ansel Adams, John Sexton, Ray McSaveney, Howard Bond, Steve Anchell, Greg Gorman, and others).

I started shooting at age seven with a Kodak Instamatic 104, mostly family and friends were my subjects. During high school I was introduced to both medium formats and the 4x5 cameras. It did not take long before I grew to dislike printing 35mm negatives. During the my college training I became a very good technical photographer, meaning I could create some excellent, sharp, grain free, gray scale photographs that lacked subjects.

It was not until I attended an Owens Valley Photography Workshop featuring Bruce Barnbaum, Ray McSaveney and John Sexton, that I realized that my photographs lacked life and I became interested in fine-art photography.

I shot my first nude images while in high school as a school photo assignment. I never did turn in the assignment, fearing the ex-marine photography teacher would suspend me for producing the images. A couple of years later, while I was in art school, I revisited the subject and received mix results and comments from the teachers and fellow students.

It was during an Ansel Adams photographic workshop; I was introduced to an assistant named Edna Bullock. She showed me images created by her husband (Wynn Bullock) and her own images created after her husband died. After viewing the images, I became interested in fine-art nudes.

Since the two workshops, I have been working with the nude or the nude in the landscape or the landscape itself…