About the Photographer

Traverse City, Michigan, has been my home since 1989. I am a writer and photographer.

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, I grew to adulthood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I took a few pictures with a twin-lens reflex while in grade school, but discovered my passion for photography while in high school. That’s when I bought my first SLR and began working in a home darkroom.

My first real job was as a writer and photographer for the Humboldt Sun newspaper in Winnemucca, Nevada. Three years work in the Great Basin country taught me much about depth of field, shutter speed, pushed film and how insidious desert dust can be.

Then I returned east and worked two years as a graduate assistant at Marquette University in Milwaukee. I managed the university’s 14-enlarger student darkroom, taught Photojournalism 101 and taught a series of continuing education classes for local residents. I also took photos for the Kenosha News.

In the mid-1980s, I bounced back west and landed at the Durango Herald newspaper in southwestern Colorado. Three years in that mountain town helped hone my skiing skills and nurture a lifelong love of mountain terrain. I made some extra cash freelancing photography for Purgatory Ski Resort, and also skied at Wolf Creek, Telluride, Hesperus, Monarch and Santa Fe. My time in Colorado sharpened my affinity for landscape photography and backcountry hiking.

A year in Marquette, Michigan, at the Mining Journal newspaper, was a stepping stone to Traverse City, where I arrived in 1989. I’ve worked for the Traverse City Record-Eagle since then, with the exception of a five-year hiatus as web developer, first for the local convention and visitors bureau and then for a pair of magazines, in the mid-2000s. I became Record-Eagle business Editor in 2014.

All text and images on this website are copyright Daniel C. Nielsen, tclocalATgmailDOTcom.

Daniel Nielsen
Writer, Photographer