Summit Lighting

Dave Black

A Nikon Ambassador and one of the pioneers in the conversion to all-digital photography, Dave Black is best known for his sports photography including covering Olympic games for more than 20 years for Newsweek. Constantly reinventing himself, he’s currently pushing new frontiers in combining lightpainting and western imagery, photography well suited for a gallery wall.

Matt Hernandez

JC Carey

Joseph “JC” Carey is a lifetime image maker that like many photographers was terrified of lighting until he was gifted with a class in 2007. The class wasn’t very informative with too many of the “recipes” that people love to share rather than teach how to light, but it lit a fire that has never stopped burning. That gift changed everything. It transformed him from someone that barely took pictures of people and knew nothing about lighting into someone still trying to figure out how to light everything. 

The last 14 years have passed with him being blessed with a daughter, a career doing what he loves, multiple magazine covers, and with meeting amazing people and trying to create great images of them. The art of photography and taking pictures is his passion but the ability to make his vision a reality in a photograph is what truly drives him. 

JC has taught all over the US including being part of the Faculty at Summit Workshops. 

JC joined the FJ Westcott Company in 2020 as their Eastern Accounts Manager and also works as a professional photographer.  

Follow his Instagram at JCPhotoMedia

Taylor Ballantyne

Ballantyne began her career in Los Angeles with commercial and creative work in the fashion and design world.  She segued into video production by shooting and editing films for New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks. In 2013 Ballantyne joined Sports Illustrated as a photographer for all brands within SI. In July 2017, she received her first national cover for Sports Illustrated; becoming one in an elite group of women to receive a national cover in the Magazine’s 60-year history. In February 2018, she produced, directed and photographed her first spread in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and created a short film entitled — “In Her Own Words” – a powerful black-and-white campaign that replaced the traditional Body Paint for the issue. Under Ballantyne’s direction, this was the first black-and-white, no-swimsuit series with an all female crew in the 54 year history of the SI Swimsuit magazine.

In November 2020, Ballantyne directed Jake Hoot in “I Would’ve LovedYou”. The song and video feature his coach, Kelly Clarkson. This is Ballantyne’s directorial debut in the world of music videos. Though her background lies within commercial and advertising, she has created many short documentary narratives. Ballantyne’s goal is to continue on this path as a director, continuing her work in music videos, while moving into commercials, film and television.

Ballantyne studied at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. She is currently based in Nashville, TN but travels across the country and internationally often for work.