Meet Damien ...

Damien Symonds
Chief Nerd
 

Hi, I’m Damien. I live in Brisbane, Australia, with my wife Lara and our two beautiful children. I’m a stay-at-home Dad, and between school runs I’m a retoucher, teacher, and nerd. I have built up the resources on this site over many years of working, learning, teaching and writing.

I did my Graphic Prepress apprenticeship with a large commercial printing firm in the 1990s. It was a lousy place to work, but a great place to learn everything about the industry. Since then I’ve worked extensively in the newspaper and magazine industries, and in printing and marketing at various tertiary education institutions. I learnt the fundamental Photoshop skills from Brisbane’s most skilled and experienced tradesmen, and have been building on those fundamentals ever since.

In 2002 Lara began studying photography and we began a small business together. My horizons broadened from the printing industry to the photography and retouching industries.

Photoshop’s such an amazing world, and I’ll never know everything about it – very few people do, I guess. And Colour Management is such a complex subject, it frightens a lot of people. But it’s great fun learning all the time, and that’s why I love it.

 

... and his better half

Lara Symonds
Vice President
 

Hi, I’m Lara and I am Damien’s wife and biggest supporter.

When we started our tiny photography business over a dozen years ago, I never imagined that it would be a stepping stone to a whole new career for Damien.

I’m so proud of him and everything he has achieved. Damien has so much knowledge to share and I really hope you learn a lot from this website.

DamienSymonds.net