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Life Explained: John Wood of Square Pixels

John Wood [Square Pixels] | Digital Imaging Specialist | Photographer | Lover of Jeeps


The first memorable job was working on an assembly line at a water heater factory. I was repeating the same task every 20 seconds as they rolled down the conveyor belt. I asked the guy next to me how long he’d been there and he said for 5 years. I lasted 4 months.
If I were president I would establish more protected jeep trails.
My uncle was a photographer in Hollywood with a big studio. He did a lot of period photography and large sets with people. I liked how he would create a photograph rather than just take a picture of something that existed. That’s what got me interested in photography as a career.
The best life advice someone gave me was, well, I think it’s more the lessons I’ve learned with my wife and I over the years when it comes to taking life slower, reducing stress and enjoying the outdoors.
I had moved to Atlanta, GA and began working more with digital photography, easing away from film. That gave me an opportunity to play and learn more digital retouching techniques. Within that 9-year period, I completely changed careers from a photographer to a digital retoucher.
I always wanted to take a cruise. Add it to my bucket list.
In a different life, I would have loved to retouch and composite movie posters. I admire the creativity and expertise that goes into creating a lot of those works of art.
A lot of my Saturdays are spent in the mountains jeeping with friends and family. A great day is spent traveling 5 mph over rocky terrain in the middle of nowhere.
I’ve had a long career in photography so the biggest change for me was the end of the film industry and the beginning of the digital industry. Watching the advancements in image quality over the years has been fascinating.
Children change everything. For the longest time, they consume your life. You work on being the best father you can and hope that they learn enough to leave you at some point and make a life of their own. I’m hoping I succeeded with that.
When I get older, I want to take more time to enjoy what’s left of my life.
I met Rick while working as an advertising photographer at Coors. I’d been there a few years before he was hired.
The studio has thrown a client party every year for the last 20 years and creating postcards for those events have been some of the most fun projects I’ve worked on, both in the travels that we have taken to photograph images for the card and the fun composites that have been created in Photoshop for the final images.
I haven’t decided if I’m done buying jeep parts or not. There’s always something intriguing that comes along.
You can always tell I need a haircut when my hat doesn’t fit right.
Starbucks needs to offer bigger, mega cups.