The Beholder is the latest photography project by CJ Bartis, a serious photographer with great aspirations and big ideas.

I have always enjoyed taking pictures but not until a few years ago did I get a bit more serious. With a new Canon camera and a few top-notch Sigma lenses I was soon on my way.

I enjoy all types of photography, but early in 2008 I started to focus almost exclusively on portrait and model photography - the more I learn about flash and multiple flash photography, the more fun I think it is. Now you can find a variety of umbrellas, softboxes, lightstands, booms and flashes in my bag, and paper and muslin backdrops hanging from my high ceiling.

Still, a man cannot live in the studio alone. And, since I have trouble staying in the same country, let alone sitting still in the same room, Places, mostly in the form of landscape and travel photography, and Things, which makes up just about everything else, have now found their way into The Beholder.

This site should work on all browsers. I love Firefox, but sometimes it just can't do all the things that Internet Explorer can. That said, IE is sometimes a pain in the @#$ - so if it asks you about scripts, just allow them. And allow pop-ups, too. There's nothing to it other than a few graphics and an easier to view gallery.

Speaking of the Gallery - I think photos are best viewed big, so I made each photo as large as possible while still, hopefully, fitting on your screen. As you enter the Gallery your browser will open in full screen mode* - don't freak out! Enabling full screen ensures your gallery viewing experience is optimized. Just make sure to close it again as you leave the gallery by clicking the link at the bottom of the Gallery page!