Digital Photographer

Jack Burn was born in New Jersey, but grew up at the northern end of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, in Front Royal, VA. He married a local girl, Mary Jane Bradley, from Radford, VA. They have two children, Sara and Jennifer, and two grandsons, Micah and Jonas.

Jack attended Ferrum College and earned a BS degree in Electrical Engineering, from Virginia Tech. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years during the Vietnam War. After college he worked for FMC Corp in Fairlawn, VA, as Plant Engineer. In 1980, Jack and his family moved to Ripplemead, VA, in Giles County. He retired from Celanese Acetate Corp. with 25 years of service, where he was Senior Electrical and Instrumentation Reliability Engineer. He and Mary Jane still live in Ripplemead, Va.

Jack first became interested in photography while serving in the Navy, and purchased his first 35mm camera at the ship's store. With in a year he knew he needed to move up to a SLR 35mm camera, and he purchased a Petri FT 35mm SLR film camera. In the 1980s he purchased his first Nikon SLR 35mm camera, and built a darkroom to process and print black and white film. Today he has several Nikon SLR cameras and two point-and-shoot digital cameras. When Nikon's D70 digital SLR camera became availblet, Jack switched from film/slides to the digital world. Now he does almost all of his photography with a Nikon D200. The D70 is his backup camera, and it is used mainly by Mary Jane. While in college Jack became interested in computers, and he has had personal computers in his home since 1979, starting with a Tandy TRS-80. Today he assembles his own computers and home computer networks, to use with their photography.

Jack's love of both photography and computers made the world of digital photography a natural fit for him. He prints all of his photos at home, up to 13 inches wide. One of his largest prints is a 13- by 40-inch panoramic, which he printed on an Epson 2200 printer. With the combination of digital photography and high-end personal computers, Jack has full control of his photography process from shooting the photograph to final printing.

He considers himself fortunate that his wife also loves photography, and she is also an artist. She understands his need to sometimes spend hours in the same location to get the best lighting for a landscape or other subject, and she also helps offering valuable critiques of Jack's work for composition and color.

Jack and his wife both are members of the Blacksburg Regional Art Association (BRAA) and the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley. He is also a member of the Blacksburg Photo Club. Jack and Mary Jane have participated in many of the Nature Photography Weekends held at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

Being retired, Jack and his wife now have more the time to devote to their photography. They enjoy traveling and working on their other interests, such as computers and genealogy. They are also enjoying being able to spend more time with their children and photographing their grandsons.

In July, 2007 Jack's digital photography was featured at the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley in Pulaski, Va. He received an honorable mention for one of his two photographs in the "All Critters Great and Small" Art Exhibition, held at the VTLS offices in Blacksburg, Va. He was approved as an "Exhibiting Artist" with the Blacksburg Regional Art Association in Aug. 2007

Examples of his photography can be seen on his personal web site www.jtburnphoto.com. Jack can be reached by e-mail

Mary Jane Burn

Digital Photographer/Artist/Genealogiest

Mary Jane (Bradley) Burn was born and raised in Radford, Virginia. She graduated Radford High School and Radford University, where she received a BS degree in Biology. While attending Radford University, Mary Jane took most of her free electives in the art department.

She worked for the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Ballistics Lab, Chem Lab and Firing Range during the Vietnam War. Mary Jane also worked as a landscape designer for several years both in the Radford area, and in the Charleston WV. area. After moving to Ripplemead, Va. in 1980, she and a friend started their own landscape business.

When her two daughters, Sara and Jenny started school in Giles County, Mary Jane started volunteering in the school system. She became a Girl Scout leader, and helped start the first Girl Scout summer day camp in Giles County. She also worked for many years as a substitute teacher for the Giles County school system, mainly working in the high schools. Mary Jane, along with her husband, Jack, were very active in all of the youth programs that their children participated in, which included competitive swimming, competitive chess, scouts, soccer, Young Life, and 4H.

She has always been interested in family history and genealogy. Mary Jane enjoys trying to solve family mysteries, as it pertains to family genealogy. She does a great deal of genealogy research online, both for her own family ancestors, as well as her friends. She serves as a NSDAR registrar for her local DAR chapter.

Mary Jane first became interested in art when as a small child she would watch a neighbor painting signs. She painted with oil colors very early. Her favorite medium is watercolor. She loves photography and uses a Nikon D-70 and a Nikon P-1.