About Eric
Hello. I'm an educator who loves photography. As a teacher at Discovery Middle School in Liberty, Missouri I teach 8th grade United States History and Computer Science. Since I bought my first computer in 6th grade - a Commodore 64 - I have loved being creative with technology. I feel fortunate that my career allows me to integrate technology in ways that makes learning exciting for my students.
My love for taking pictures has been passed down to me from my dad. My mom and dad owned The Howells Journal while I was growing up, the local newspaper in my hometown. Dad took pictures for the paper and won state awards for his journalistic photography. We also had some Ansel Adams prints in the house and I learned to appreciate the artistic beauty in the simplicity of black and white photos.
I was growing up back in the day of developing and printing your own work and he showed me how to roll and develop 35 mm film in the darkroom he made from a closet in our bathroom at home. He also showed me how to print and enlarge photographs for the newspaper. He would let me use some of his old 35 mm cameras to take pictures for the paper as a kid growing up. Those all seem like ancient arts now but I learned to enjoy creating and sharing an image through photography.
I enjoyed taking pictures in college and as a young adult but it was expensive to buy film and have it processed so you had to be careful about what you shoot. I bought my first digital camera around 2003, a Gateway DC-T50 camera that shot in 5 Megapixels. I still have that camera! It didn't matter how many pictures you took with digital as long as you had enough memory on your card. It was so liberating to be able to take as many pictures as you wanted.
The other aspect of digital photography that I love is postproduction and the ability to edit photos. I enjoy using a variety of apps and online tools to create beautiful pieces of art from my photos.
I currently shoot mostly landscape and sports photography. I follow Liberty High activities and take pictures at events and games. The students in teach in middle school attend Liberty High and our daughter is also a student at Liberty High. It gives me great joy that the players, coaches and parents enjoy my photographs.
My hobby is totally funded by anything that I make from selling photos. I started selling photos taken with my phone and I am now adding better lenses and gear as I work to improve my photography.
Contact Eric at eric@langhorstphotography.com