In 1975, between semesters at the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy, I borrowed a camera and ventured on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and Colorado with a schoolmate. I was hooked.
Upon graduating from Pharmacy school in 1976 I treated myself to my first Nikon 35mm camera. It was retired in the late 1990s when I converted to digital. It continued to serve my family when my youngest daughter decided to attend Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. It continues to take fine images even during this time of the digital photography revolution.
I am self-taught through research, experimentation and perseverance. Devouring books and magazine articles, as well as studying prints by other photographers I am in close contact, take up much of my idle time. I have also attended workshops under Master photographers such as Alain Briot in order to refine my skills. I make an effort to be limitless in the variety of subjects I choose to photograph although I lean towards landscapes. Learning to deal with a variety of situations and subjects can only improve my art as I continue to expand my knowledge and stretch the envelope.
As I progressed through the stages of my photography (learning, acquiring and perfecting my vision), I discovered within myself that documentation of a subject was not enough to provide me with the satisfaction of becoming an adequate photographer/artist. I know there is more than just snapping the shutter. What drives me is taking my photography beyond the final step in the initial process of capturing an image: that initial shutter release. This is only the first step in creating an image. Although it is important to make that first step the best it can be, it would be short sighted to stop and present what was captured and interpreted by the camera as a final image. Possibilities abound with the use of the tools that are available today.
I tend to use many different techniques when I create my images. I may capture an image by using what the camera and lenses offer me as tools. Vaseline on the lens filter, slow shutter speeds, and camera motion may be employed; as well as multiple exposures. The one limit I place on myself in creating an image is that I do not add objects that are not there. I may take distracting objects out of the image but only do this on rare occasions. My preference is to start with one file (negative) and work with what I have captured in the field. Some times 2 or more files may be combined and one image is created from these 2. Once that initial process has been completed, the digital darkroom remains my final tool in developing the image that represents my vision of what is possible.
If I can succeed in presenting an image that inspires the viewer to take a deep breath at what they see, then I have accomplished my goal. Because that is exactly how I feel when I look at the image I have created.