David Hobby (born January 30, 1965) is an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and is the author of the Strobist.com

lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, a site which promotes lighting techniques — such as off-camera

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Barry Allen ** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...

— among photographic enthusiasts, often with an emphasis on the practical knowledge rather than the gear. The blog is no longer updated but at one time had an on-line monthly readership of over 300,000 photographers from 175 countries, and was named one of the "25 Best Blogs of 2010" by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine.

Professional life

Until July 2008, Hobby was a staff photojournalist with ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

''. In June 2007, he took a year-long leave of absence from ''The Sun'' to blog full time. On August 3, 2008, Hobby announced in a posting on his blog that he had taken a buyout from ''The Sun'' along with about one hundred staffers who left the paper at that time. He explained, "There was a hard staff reduction quota in effect, and given the way the blog has gone I thought it would be best if I counted toward it when they started lopping off heads". Hobby has since used the blog as a platform from which to explore various photographic projects. In June 2009, Hobby was named one of "The Five Biggest Photographers on the Internet" by ''

Photo District News ''Photo District News'' (or ''PDN'') was an American monthly trade journal, trade publication for professional photographers, published from 1980 to January 2020. The publication took its name from New York City's photo district, an area of photo ...

''. In July 2021, Hobby announced that he was moving on to a different, unnamed project and would no longer update Strobist. Interviews: *Jefferson Graham for ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' *Allen Murabayashi for the ''

American Society of Media Photographers The American Society of Media Photographers, abbreviated ASMP, is a professional association of imaging professionals, including photojournalism, photojournalists, architectural photographers, architectural, underwater photographers, underwater, f ...

'' Hobby has authored an article on a DIY photo studio in the December 2007 issue of ''

MacWorld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'', co-authored the book ''Columbia: A Celebration'' with wife Susan Thornton Hobby, and produced two tutorial DVD series

Personal life

Hobby studied

photojournalism Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. Hobby currently lives in the

Howard County, Maryland Howard County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population is 334,529. Since there are no incorporated municipalities, there is no incorporated coun ...

, area with his wife Susan and two children.

References

External links

Strobist blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobby, David Living people American photographers 1965 births