Daniel Dempster
For nearly twenty five years Daniel Dempster has roamed the backroads and wild places of America seeking out and capturing on film the beauty and wonders of this wonderful land. Whether he is photographing the powerful thoroughbreds of Kentucky as they thunder down the stretch of Churchill Downs or roaming a stark and rugged Maine coastline searching for the perfect combination of composition and light he is at home with a camera in his hand.
What started as a hobby and passion in 1980 soon blossomed into a full-time career and in 1988 Daniel had four images featured in the Kentucky Derby Musuem. Work with the horse racing industry soon followed and in 1990 he was asked to be official photographer for the Kentucky Derby Festival. He held this position for twelve years winning several gold awards for his photography from the International Festivals Association.
Throughout the 1990’s in addition to doing corporate work Daniel was also compiling a large stock image library, which now consists of over 80,000 photographs on a myriad of subjects. In 1999 Daniel was contracted by Voyageur Press to photograph the lighthouses of the Great Lakes for a coffee-table book on the subject. On the completion of the Great Lakes project the publisher immediately asked him to photograph a second book on the lighthouses of the South. Both books have been extremely successful and have garnered many rave reviews including a 2005 Ben Franklin Award for best coffee-table / large format book for Lighthouses of the South.
Daniel enjoys helping others improve their photographic skills and this makes him a popular workshop and tour leader. Over the years he has taught workshops and led tours across the United States for both Natures Light and Natural Impressions photographic tour companies.
Daniel makes his home in the rolling hills of southern Indiana with his wife, two children and a menagerie of pets.