John Garaventa is a corporate photographer specializing in the unique ability of telling a story about “People on location” in one or two photographs. "I didn't start out to be a photographer it's just more fun than milking cows." Garaventa explains that his photography career had a unique beginning. He graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in Agriculture. While pursuing a masters degree in Extension Education from the University of Missouri, he was selected as an Agricultural Specialist to work on a 1978 4-H exchange program in the USSR. National Geographic learned of the exchange and approached the group explaining the KGB had effectively closed all of their staff writers and photographers out of the countryside assuming them to be CIA operatives. John's earliest formal photography training was in a National Geographic version of photography boot camp. The result was a June 1979 article in the magazine with contributing photos of Life on the Farm Soviet Style. He later continued his formal education in photography at The Art Institute of Atlanta graduating first in his class. After graduation he freelanced at the Hartford Courant from 1984 to 1988. He formed Garaventa Photography in 1989. He lives in Manchester CT with his wife and two children.