Artist's Statement

I am a biology teacher by profession, a photographer by passion. In the past I have been an avid birdwatcher and have served as president of the Sacramento Audubon Society. I also was a park naturalist for the state of California. After about 15 years of serious photography, I have acquired a collection of about 70,000 images. Most of these images are scenic, flora fauna of the western United States. My favorite subject matter is nature, but I enjoy most all forms of photography.

My photographic activities include attending and presenting workshops, leading field trips, competing in local and international competitions, making matting framing prints, preparing and presenting multimedia programs, evaluating photographic competitions, leading photo treks, photographing weddings, banquets, professional workshops and sporting events. I plan to retire (after 34 years) in June of 2001 and go into photography on a full-time basis.

Travels have taken me to the Amazon, the Andes, the Galapagos Islands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and England; as well as Canada and the United States including Alaska. Six weeks as an exchange teacher in southern Japan also added to my photographic files. Although my foreign travels have been wonderful, my favorite area for photography is the western United States.

How did I get into photography? I previously took many bird photos for identification purposes. As time moved on, I found myself taking fewer bird photos and more general nature photos. These nature photos gave me so much pleasure and personal satisfaction that I gave up hard-core bird watching and devoted all my spare time to photography.

Nature subjects, especially landscapes, occupy most of my time. My favorite images are those that show great texture detail in the foreground and have strong impact in the background. Most all of my landscape pictures were taken within the first hour half or last hour half of the day. Light is so very important when exposing film. In addition to the singing “golden light” of sunset and sunrise, atmospheric conditions (rain, snow, fog, storms) can sometimes give that very special lighting moment that may never again be captured in my time. Reflected light (snow, canyon walls, water, sand, others) sometimes will give a unique lighting effect. Light and subject matter are probably the two most important factors I consider when making an image.

My favorite lens is the F 2.8 20mm Nikon wide-angle lens. Most all of my macro shots are taken with an F 2.8 105mm Nikon macro lens, 0mm Nikon zoom lens and the F 4.5 70-300 Nikon zoom lens. I almost always use a polarizing filter. I also often use a graduated gray neutral density filter for sunrise sunset photographs. I have just started using the Nikon F100 camera. If you have any questions, please call me at (916) 966-2917 between 6pm to 10pm Pacific Coast Time or send me an E-mail.