about me

Colleen D. Gjefle (pronounced like Jeff Lee)
Philadelphia, PA
215-483-4027
email me at: cdg(at)gjfoto.com

Who am I?  I’m an artist at heart and always will be. I was given my first camera about the same time I got my first set of paints. It was an old Kodak Instamatic 110-film camera and it seemed almost magical. Photography has been a part of my life ever since, to some degree or another.  But my path to becoming a professional photographer was not a straight one. In fact, for most of my life I focused on painting as my main creative endeavor.

My life to date in a nutshell:

I was born and raised on a small family farm in western Wisconsin. I went to college in Minnesota, but after a couple of years I ran out of both money and focus. Before leaving school, I got a student work permit which let me spend half a year in England, where I happily worked and experienced life in another part of the world. When I returned home I couldn’t find work, so I enlisted in the Air Force to finish my education and get that elusive “experience required” qualification.

The Air Force gave me an excellent education that became the basis for my entire working life ever since. I was officially a “Computer Programming and Communication Technology Specialist”, but when it was discovered that I was an artist, I was moved into a job where I got additional training in computer graphics. Most of my military service was spent in Texas. After my discharge, I was back in England for a few years, returned to the USA and eventually ended up in the Philadelphia area. I took advantage of my GI benefits to help buy a house in Philly.

After trying a few different jobs, I landed a job where I was taking photos of items that were going on an internet auction website (one of the early eBay competitors that didn’t make it). Those photos were taken using a video camera and image capture software as digital cameras were only just coming to the consumer market and were crazy expensive. In 1998 I bought my first digital camera – a swivel-body Nikon Coolpix 900 with only 1.3 megapixels that cost me $1000. However I didn’t just leap into being a full time photographer at that point – I did some photography (mainly for a customer selling on ebay), some computer troubleshooting, some website design, some of this, some of that…  

Eventually I realized that my heart is with my cameras. In other words, it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up! I began with that 1.3mp Coolpix 900 but now I’m using a 21.1 megapixel Canon EOS 5D Mark II that even does HD video.  I feel like I’ve moved from kindergarten to graduate school in slightly more than a decade.

As with all art forms, I’ve developed my own “style” through trial and error. I examined the type of photos I found most visually appealing and put my own spin on them. I realized that I love vintage photos, especially high-contrast black and whites, which is the style I’ve adapted for my beauty / boudoir photos. The only modern photographer whose style has influenced me is Ellen von Unwerth - mainly her photos that have that same vintage b&w look.

In late 2009, I sold my first house and bought my second home. Alongside photography, I still love art and painting. My paintings are abstract and surreal – my artwork website is MsSurreal.com. Want to know more about me? Here’s my tribute to my Dad, who passed away in 1996 and whom I still miss very much.  Here you can meet my dogs, both living and dead – my life is incomplete without dogs around!

And here's some photos of my studio in center city Philly.