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Jeff Hohner was born in 1961. At age 10 he got his first camera, an Argus C3, his mother's college camera. He learned the Sunny 16 rule from the tightly folded paper instructions included with every roll of Kodak Plus-X film. He kept an exposure log in a small notebook. His first picture was of his dog on a cloudy day.

"1. f/8 1/125 Sparky"

Some weeks later, upon receiving the prints from this first roll of film, Jeff discovered that the C3's camera case had flopped across the camera lens during this first exposure. Sparky was partially obscured by a dark, fuzzy semi-circle. He also discovered that at the moment he clicked the shutter to make this exposure, Sparky was licking his nose! Jeff had captured his first 'decisive moment.'

At 14, Jeff started taking pictures for his high school year book. After some negotiating, he was allowed to use his father's Zeiss Ikon Contaflex II at school. In 1976, with savings from his paper route, Jeff bought his first camera, an Olympus OM-1.

Around the same time, with his father's encouragement, Jeff learned darkroom skills. At first he practiced in the school darkroom. Later, he built a small darkroom in a corner of the basement.

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