Dave Johnson PPA Certified, Cr.Photog, S-MPPA has been involved in photography since 1970 when he started shooting sports images for his old high School while in college. He graduated from Macalaster College in 1973 with a BA degree in Geography.

After college he started working at Brown Photo and nurtured his professional shooting. His area of expertise has been technical, especially darkroom and exposure. In 1976 he took a position with a DCS as the Ilford Tech Representative for Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota. He returned to Brown Photo in 1977 and was transferred to Fargo, North Dakota in 1979 to open up Brown Photo's first out of state store. All along this time, shooting weddings and commercial jobs, and lots of custom printing for his clients.

In Fargo, Dave started teaching at North Dakota State University and Moorhead Area Vocational Center. His studio, Silver Images, started to grow with lots of custom slides for presentations and custom Cibachrome Prints. In 1985, Dave accepted Affiliate Coordinator position at Brown Photo servicing studios in towns that offered Brown Photo Services. In 1987, Dave joined Monarch Photo in Fargo as the Customer Service Manager and Retail Sales Manager. He returned to Minneapolis in 1988 to join National Camera Exchange as Department Manager of Wedding and Portrait Division.

Shortly after his return he resumed Silver Images and started teaching at Minneapolis Technical Community College. In 1991 Dave was transferred to National's Professional Imaging Store with the responsibility of servicing the wedding portrait market. During this time, Silver Images grew with an emphasis on weddings.

Dave is a member of PPA, Minnesota PPA (MPPA), holds the MPPA Council seat in district 5, and is a past president of The Twin Cities Professional Photographers Association. For the last four years Dave was responsible for creating the PPA's Top Ten Wedding Album program. He has received a Masterpiece Award, and Minnesota's Addie Award (MPPA's highest service award) and was the Photographer of the Year in the TCPPA Open Category in 2003. He is a PPA Certified Professional Photographer, is currently working on his PPA Masters Degree and has received his Craftsman Degree from PPA. Dave is also a member of Photo Marking Association (PMA); Digital Imaging Marketing Association (DIMA) and is a Certified Photographic Councilor through PMA.

Dave started using Photoshop 2.5 in 1992 for graphic design and prepress applications. He did retouching and collages in Photoshop for clients. He has learned every version of Photoshop since.