Welcome! Here you get to experience the "magik" that can happen when light enters a camera lens. My name is Don Cook, and I am your host.

I have been "hooked" on photography every since I took a course in High School. Up until 1994, I used film in my cameras. In 1994 I bought what I believe was the first consumer-level digital camera (an Apple QuickTake 100), at the 1994 MacWorld Conference and used it to take photos of San Francisco. After that, I became "hooked" on digital photography.

Currently, I have access to some very "cool tools" for digital photography. My camera gear includes four Canon bodies with grips, filters, 5 zoom lenses, 3 prime lenses (including a Macro), a Pro Tripod and Monopod, three strobes, a frame, lighting equipment and cases.

For computer hardware I use a Mac Pro (the tower of 8 - core power), a Custom PeeCee (that I built myself), two Wacom tablets, and a MacBook Pro connected to a SAMSUNG studio monitor, as well as a ColorVision Spyder (for color calibration). For software I use the Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4), Aperture 2, Lightroom 2, Macromedia Studio 8 and other goodies such as the Art Directors Toolkit, the DigitalColor Meter, and countless Plug-Ins, Adobe Open Type Fonts, Clip Art and Digital Stock Photos.

My studies of Adobe Photoshop CS4 have concentrated on camera "raw" (digital negative) techniques, color correction, masking, layers, retouching, special effects, HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) and professional sharpening techniques. (This is called "taking my skills to the next level", or as Emeril Lagasse would say, "kicking it up a notch").

Currently, I am busy building "Don's Digital Café": A Digital Darkroom, Digital Recording Studio, Digital HD (High-Definition) Video Podasting Studio, Digital Photography Studio and Digital Art and Web Design Studio. To learn more about my Digital Café, visit http://www.donsdigitalcafe.com, (scheduled to launch in February of 2010).

Here, at Lens Magik, you can download Royalty Free Stock Images (for commercial use), or Event Images (for non-commercial use). You can print them yourself, or you can order images printed by our Pro Lab. Our Pro Lab has over 30 years of experience in photographic printing. All prints are produced on Fuji Crystal archive paper with state of the art Fuji Frontier and/or Durst Theta printers. You can also order our images printed on canvas, or on quality gifts and merchandise.