Frank Cianciolo was born and raised on a small cornfield near Manchester. He was affable and made friends quickly. Dogs, goats and chickens were his workmates. He knew turtles, salamanders and stickleback fish from as far away as the creek. Frank went to Chelsea schools and learned about people. He started writing music in 1979, the year he graduated. He finally wrote a good song in 1986. The following decade found him leading the fun dance band with a new name, Frank Allison and the Odd Sox. The band started with a bang and finally fizzled out in 1996. Frank then found his focus, founding a family with his fair Karie. He bought his first camera at a yard sale—a Pentax K-1000 with a 200mm lens for $5. He took many beautiful pictures of his babies. But sadly, the flicker of photography faded to fewer and fewer photos.

The rolling eyes of his teenagers might have ended a lustrous photography career, but one fateful day, 17 years ago, a cicada emerged from the soil and molted. It left it’s perfect skin intact on the side of a mulberry tree. Frank couldn’t photograph it with his 200mm lens, so he stole away with his daughter’s cheap digital camera. The little fish-eye lens was perfect for taking his first macro photo. Frank was ecstatic with the results and started taking thousands of photos with his daughter’s camera.

Blowing up pictures of insects and flowers on his computer screen was an endless fascination. The small world around him was filled with mysteries and magic. Wanting to make a record cover with these new photos, Frank was sad to discover the little camera’s images would only print at 2 x 3 inches, so he went to the camera shop in Dexter and purchased his first Canon DSLR with a 50mm macro lens. He has spent the last 15 years using that same lens to bring out an incredible world of color and beauty, which he looks forward to sharing with you. Frank and Karie currently own and operate the historic Clinton Movie Theater, (517) 456-4315. Frank writes and records music, makes animations and films, draws, and of course, photographs bugs.