Tim Jacobs attended Sheridan College in the late 70’s when hot lights, film and wet processes were tools of the trade. After graduating, he opened a small studio in the aging industrial west of downtown Toronto, an area that is quite chic these days. The business grew and transformed as he peddled his “book” at the Toronto ad agencies, publications and corporate head offices of the 80’s where budgets were big and only egos were bigger. Those were heady days. Magazine spreads, billboards, packaging, annual reports & catalogues were all part of the mix. Everyone had great studios and assistants were a dime a dozen. Everything was large or medium format … there were lots of dog and pony shows… lots of schmoozing… and lots of money.
When the economy turned south in the early 90’s every ad shop was looking for ways to survive and the prevalent approach was to cut staff, go “in house” and embrace “digital” where the PC became the creative tool of choice. The best Ad Agencies were gobbled up by Internationals and practically overnight a lot of jobs and creative people disappeared.
Digital had really started to take its toll.
Tim packed up his family and moved out of the city to a tiny, beautiful town on Ontario’s West Coast called Goderich. Talk about a change in lifestyle. Running a photography business in a small town means you do it ALL … Commercial/Industrial work for Champion Road Machinery and Sifto Salt on one hand and weddings, families & children portraits on the other… both studio and location. Tim really developed a love for location portraiture … and the area offered an abundance of incredible locations. He also embraced digital post production early on but film remained his photographic medium of choice. Digital was either way too expensive or just not good enough until the turn of the millennium.
Ten delightful years later Tim moved to Stratford and has been a resident there ever since. This last move allowed him to once again embrace his love of photography in the commercial and industrial forums more available in the growing cities of SW Ontario.
Over 30 years into his career, he has completed a lot of different assignments and the workflow is completely digital. He truly is an experienced photographer in many facets of the profession. Industry, Tourism, Product, Portraiture & Weddings, Aerials and Architecture are all major contributors to his portfolio. He has a passion for sharing this experience and runs photography courses in the Stratford area and at Fanshawe College in London.
Tim is still creative, intuitive, enthusiastic and fastidious about his work and there isn’t anything else he’d rather be doing… except maybe sharing some of these exploits with you. If you ever take one of his courses, you’ll know what that means.
Hopefully you detect some evidence of his experience, durability and skill in the galleries & blog within.
TJ
