About Bill Schopf

My first experience with photography took place during my freshman year at college. My roommate owned a nice 35 mm camera (as he had been his high school’s yearbook photographer) that he showed me how to use one weekend. We continued to shoot every few months, and I became more at ease with the operations of a camera. A few years later, I purchased my own 35 mm camera, and enrolled in a basic photography class at Wichita State University. After watching a black and white image magically appear in the paper developer during class, I knew I’d found a passion for a lifetime.

After graduation from college, I was hired by the Kansas City Star newspaper as a process camera operator/advertising photographer. It was during the handful of years working at the newspaper that I honed my skills in the areas of product, fashion, and lifestyle photography and laid the groundwork for the photography that I do now.

I enjoy shooting a diverse range of subject matter—anything from still life, abstract, and street scenes, to nature and landscapes. I try to focus on key elements of good lighting and dramatic shadows to define my subject’s shape and texture, and thus achieve an image with “impact.” The majority of my work is taken in black and white because I admire the sensual and dramatic traits that the medium affords me.