West Virginia: A Wider View

WINNER Great Midwest Book Festival Best Photography Book

Step into the beautiful landscape of West Virginia as seen through the panoramic camera lens of photographer, Frank Ceravalo. Frank's expertise invites the viewer into the pages of this beautiful book of brilliant panoramas that capture nature as its finest. Almost heaven it is---

In February 1983 the Shenandoah Valley experienced a 30-inch snowfall. One of the things Frank Ceravalo and his new wife realized was that they did not have a camera to take pictures of the event. So as soon as the snow melted enough to move, they went to a local photo shop and purchased a used 35mm range finder camera. He was given a 12-exposure roll of film and told to go out, give it a try, and bring the camera back if he did not like the results. One of the images from that roll resulted in his first landscape. Since then he has improved his technique and equipment, but the main focus of his photography has remained the same: nature and landscape photography.
Frank's formal photographic training consists of adult education classes and several seminars. The majority of his education has been from personal reading, analyzing the work and technique of the top nature and landscape photographers, and his own experimentation in the field. Ceravalo has a BS degree in chemical engineering and spent over 25 years in industry and feels that the training as an engineer has helped with the technical aspect of photography. More importantly the use of the engineering mindset of always looking for different ways of viewing a situation and adapting to it, assists in capturing the image. He particularly likes morning for the quality of light but also for the effects of fog that are more prominent in the morning.
A majority of Frank's work is from West Virginia, Virginia, and Western Maryland, but also includes images from a variety of places like the Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, Alaska, Maine, Bavaria, Japan, and Italy.

Frank started with 35mm film and now shoots totally in digital to produce his photographs, viewing the type of camera used as only the tool to achieve the desired image. With these "tools," his goal is to create an image composed with both form and light in a visually pleasing balance that tells the story of the location. In the current digital darkroom he uses standard darkroom techniques as well as methods like high dynamic range processing and panoramic image splicing to create images that reflect his vision of the setting.