Dennis Walker is the President and Founder of Camera Bits. He started the company in 1996 after his initial exposure to digital photography at his previous job showed him a need for improved image quality and workflow solutions.

Prior to founding Camera Bits, Dennis worked in the field of neural networks and was co-author of the award winning game Dungeon Master. He then started working with digital pioneers, Kodak and Minolta, to vastly accelerate the RAW processing and image quality of their early attempts at digital cameras for working professionals. Dennis initially focused on image quality issues such as color artifacts and high ISO noise-reduction, creating Photoshop filter plug-ins to solve these difficult problems.

After attending several photojournalism workshops and seeing the woes of workflow at Super Bowl XXX, Dennis realized that the biggest contribution he could make to digital photography besides image quality was to improve the selection and editing process, which at the time was (to use a technical term) rather “clunky.”

Dennis continued to create Photoshop plug-ins that improved image quality by using new RAW processing algorithms and advanced image filtering techniques. Interestingly, he implemented RAW exposure compensation before Kodak did for their own cameras, earning him an award from the NPPA for his contributions.

Taking all that he had learned, including rigorous testing in the tense, real-world editing bays at Super Bowl XXXII, Dennis released the first version of Photo Mechanic in 1998. An instant classic was born. Because everyone in the photojournalism business used IPTC standards, Dennis also became an accidental expert on metadata, incorporating tools like batch captioning and variables in Photo Mechanic to simplify and expand the application and usage of metadata in photography.

Photo Mechanic isn’t just for photojournalists; its speed and organizational tools now help all professional photographers work faster and more efficiently. For 19 years and counting, Photo Mechanic remains the go-to software for professional photographers around the world.