Jon Steele Biography

Been working hard cleaning up all loose ends and updating my life... here is a quick bio that I assembled before I get too busy and forget about all the hard work I have done that got me to this point!!! enjoy an insight to my life:

Jon Steele has the past 12 years experience in the editorial trenches of niche magazine departments and online magazines. As a two time photo editor, full time freelance photographer, writer, filmmaker and artist Steele secures his traveling lifestyle by selling his work to the industries top companies as well as contributing to the top surf publications around the world. Many of his globe trotting excursions include off the beaten path ventures of the Galapagos, Jamaica, Alaska, Indonesia, Italy, Fiji and Panama.

Jon Steele was born in San Antonio and grew up surfing the Texas Gulf Coast until the age of 20 residing in Corpus Christi. After securing his junior college art interest at Del Mar College where he found a niche for painting as well as drawing and photography he moved onto greener pastures and bigger waves. He was inspired by the right hand point waves and beautiful landscapes of Santa Barbara to push the envelope of his art. 15 years after his interest in photography Mr. Steele has come around full circle with his art incorporating photography, sculpting and painting and writings to bring the feeling of places he has traveled into one relevant piece at a time..

He secures his lifestyle by shooting photos as well as video. Residing in Southern California during the summer swell months he spends alot of time surfing shooting photos and hosting artistic photography shows and student lectures in Texas and at community colleges through out the U.S. Graduating from the esteemed Brooks Institute of Photography in 2000, with his BA degree in digital media quickly his work experience ranged from ESPN, the New York Times, Men's Journal and many many more. Steele is proficient in all photographic lighting environments and color management systems as well as portraiture, product, lifestyle, and post production. Steele's knowledge of reproduction values and printing as well as online and other visual output are exceptional due to his work with publications all over the world and their needs for output as well as web based products/outputs. Jon has been published by dozens of international surfing and skateboarding magazines and has traveled widely shooting the sports top professionals riding some the the worlds biggest and best waves and bowls. A Senior Photographer for ESM (10 years + contributing), works with SIMA and the Surfrider Foundation all the way to wedding photography, Mr. Steele is a well rounded and professional photographer in all sense of the word. Steele has personally raised thousands of dollars for the Texas Gulf Coast Surf Rider Chapters as well as helping out the Southern California Chapter even to initiating the Corpus Christi Junior Lifegaurd Program in 2012. Going above and beyond, his art shows helped raised more than three thousand dollars for Pterigium research as well as hundreds of dollars for the SIMA/ Waterman's Ball.

In the highly regarded Surfers Journal, Steele was named one of the world's top up and coming young surf photographers to which he has grown into a full fledged professional career. As of late 2012, Steele was the only person everto emerge from the Coastal Bend as a full time professional surf photographer. Jon Steele has recorded more professional accomplishments than perhaps any other Texas Surf photographer in th past 15 years. From 1999 to 2012, Steele's work was published in the New York Times and other publications including Surfer Magazine and The Surfers Journal.

"I enjoy every aspect about surf photography. The self-governing work ethic, the friends I make around the world and the new experiences that come with it." says Steele. "I love the smell of old rotting wetsuits on the floorboards of cars, big waves, fighting infections and dehydration in foreign countries and the surplus of good times that go with the traveling adventures. Experiencing new cultures through the surfing and skating lifestyles, are more of a reward than any paycheck one can receive."