About JSPhoto
John Stark, born in Colorado Springs Colorado, lived there a short while and moved to Denver. From Denver to Burlington Iowa. In August of 1968 (on my birthday no less) we moved to Duluth Minnesota, I wound up with two birthday parties in two states :). From Duluth we moved to litle Nappanee Indiana, known for Amish Acres, then moved to Lima, Ohio. After high school I went in the Navy for a short time and then moved to Pennsylvania. From there I wound up here in Indiana again. Been here since May of 1993.

I have always been a racing fan and sports fan but never had much time for it all. My trip into the world of photography actually began in 1987 when a guy ran into the ambulance I was driving. I had a neck injury and the doc said "in 10 years this is going to need fixed". Well he was one month short! After surgery I lost use of my right hand for a while, and they discovered other problems. Surgery was out this time as the risk was too high. I wound up on disability, sitting at home for two years doing nothing but eating pain pills :(. I got a free digital Polaroid camera with internet service and started taking some pictures. From there I went to some races and people who saw my pictures liked them. I ended shooting for the track the rest of the year. I also got an Olympus C2100UZ towards the end of the season. I realized I was hooked and tried to figure out what I could do to keep shooting through the winter. I had moved and went to a newspaper near where I was living and asked if they needed any help. They asked to see some photos and after looking at them I began shooting sports for them. That was all in 2001. It was a blast, I got to go to all kinds of places, but limited by gear and experiance didn't get any "big" jobs. Suddenly the Olympus died so I needed a new camera. I wound up with a what was then the top of the line Canon 1D, and since then moved to the 1D MKII N.

I shoot mostly sports for area newspapers and do a lot of freelance work for other papers and some magazines as well.

I have been able to shoot the Indianapolis Colts, the Indianapolis Ice just before the team folded, but the best thing I have had the opportunity to shoot was this past November when my old high school in Nappanee won it's first ever football state championship. The Nappanee paper ran 19 of my photos in a special pullout section including the main photo of the team running onto the field. I was happy for those kids, going from a losing record in the regular season to state champs!

Now I live outside McCordsville, In with my "kids" Casper (part rot/lab) and Hermy (barn cat) and just enjoy taking pictures and doing genealogy.

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