Don Cole
Zephyrhills, Florida - United States
Don Cole - Fine Artist
Member Since: 08/04/2012
Don Cole has been interested in photography since he was about 12 years old and a young friend was taking pictures and developing film in his home. Don remembers having a Kodak Duo-flex camera as his first camera. He set up a darkroom in his parents’ home too. When he was in high school he took pictures of the sports teams and events and sold the pictures to the students. When he graduated from high school he established his own business, Cole Studios. He used a 2 ¼ x3 ¼ Speed Graphic camera for weddings, baby pictures and commercial photography. He joined the 138th Fighter Squadron Air National Guard unit in 1952 as a photographer. He was activated to full time military service during the Berlin crisis of 1961 and served in the photo lab at Phalsbourg, France. In his free time he took many pictures of the countryside using his Leica 35 mm camera. After active duty he returned to the States and his wife and young daughter. With a family to support, he became a sales man in a camera store and eventually went into the ad specialty business. Over the past 50 years he has taken thousands of pictures using a large variety of cameras. Today he enjoys digital photography using Photoshop.
