My interest in photography started in the early 1970's with a borrowed camera. Combining photography with trips into the mountains I soon decided it might be cool to print my own pictures. However, printing from a home darkroom made me realize I much more enjoyed times spent behind the camera.
In the early 1980's I was fortunate to receive training from a professional photographer in Arizona. I was given an "aspiring photographer" membership to the Tucson Chapter of the Arizona Professional Photographers Association and through this experience gained the ability to "see" light. While a member, I received two merits of award for images created with one of the images awarded second place in the portrait division at the Annual Convention and given a Kodak Award for Photographic Excellence. My passion for photography had begun in full.
Through the years, various pursuits have dictated equipment changes. Starting with 35mm, I moved to large format, than to a medium format Hasselblad system, and currently use a Nikon system, various Nikkor lenses, and a Giottos tripod to capture the images you see here. Shooting film most of my life I recently took the leap of faith to digital, currently shooting with a Nikon Fx format DSLR.
Technical proficiency and artistic vision must come together to create meaningful art. Taking steps to capture a technically acceptable image is important, but a visually inspiring one is much more difficult to achieve. Insight, visualization, and patience play different roles in the creation of photographic art but maybe the most important element, that of being in the right place at the right moment in time, sometimes is just a matter of luck.
About digital photography: With the advent of digital photography, it was only a matter of time before the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" became obsolete. With use of imagination and creative software, colors can be added or subtracted, items can be inserted into a scene, images can be merged together, and in the name of creativity, a myriad of combinations can be used to paint a picture and pass it off as photography. And with the right computer skills many are quite convincing.
Shortly after I traded in my film camera for digital, I was tempted to follow this path. If only I could have a full moon with all the texture found in its face to match the detail (not silhouette) of the rock formation included in the foreground of the image. I quickly found my motivation was not to create photo art supposedly made "better" with the aid of a computer but rather to experience the real beauty in nature and to enjoy the whole experience while photographing.
Probably the hardest lesson I have learned and continue to learn is even the best images I am blessed to capture through the lens can not match the incredible emotional impact the subject of my photography imparts upon me. I promise any special effects ever found in my photographic images will be placed there by time of day, time of year, atmospheric conditions, selective focus or exposure, and the angle or composition that I have chosen to use. Not with the aid of a computer.
I feel blessed to be able to visit the places in the natural world that I have photographed. There is a wealth of beauty waiting to be found with many variations between time of day, change of seasons, and conditions from one year to the next. People stand side by side and each will see the scene unfold through their own eyes. Moments in a persons past play a great role on what they see and how they see it.
Never quit enjoying the natural world and never give up hope on the goodness in humankind. I hope you enjoy my images and maybe we'll meet on a mountain trail or somewhere on a river some day.