In Memoriam: Dean Collins, 51

Commercial photographer and video workshop pioneer Dean Collins passed away Feb. 2 at his home near San Diego after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 51.

Collins used his knowledge of the mechanics of light to enhance his own career as well as those of the thousands of photographers who took his workshops or purchased his educational videos.

He began his career working for portrait and wedding photographers in Los Angeles and later honed his craft by studying and working with photographers in Switzerland and Germany. Collins returned to his hometown of San Diego in 1980 and set up his own studio, where he cultivated a career shooting for catalogues, calendars, magazines and ad agencies.

In the early Nineties he began touring the country and making frequent trips to Europe, Japan and Australia with his lighting workshops. Collins saw the advent of video technology as the future of education and he soon adapted his business to include video?and later CD and DVD?versions of his workshops. "Some of the manufacturers looked at him crosswise when he said he wasn't going to go [to seminars] in person but would show himself on a video screen," says Tim Whitehouse, a friend and colleague for the last 25 years. Whitehouse says Collins' message to photographers was never to be afraid of failure. "He always said failure shows you what doesn't work and out of that you find out what does work," Whitehouse says. "It forces you to be a creative person and find creative solutions to problems."

Collins was colorblind, and friends say that influenced his approach to lighting.

"He looked at lighting more as a science, more on the technical side than the feeling side," says San Diego photographer Tim Mantoani, who interned with Collins and later went to work at his studio. "Lighting was a math equation for him."

Friends say the key to Collins' success as an instructor was his personality. A garrulous speaker with a quick wit, Collins was able to keep audiences entertained while explaining complex lighting scenarios in easy-to-understand terms.

Collins authored several books, and received an honorary degree from Brooks Institute of Photography where his educational videos and CDs were a standard part of the curriculum. Earlier this year, the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) honored Collins with a lifetime achievement award.

Collins was diagnosed with cancer almost two years ago. He is survived by his wife, Linda, and two children, Hannah, and Dean, Jr.

A scholarship fund in Collins's honor has been set up to help with photographic education. Checks can be made out to the Dean Collins Scholarship Fund, and mailed to the office of his company, Software Cinema, 13223 Black Mountain Rd., 1-260, San Diego, CA 92129.