I've loved making photos for 52 of my almost 58 years, not so much for artistic purposes, as much as historical interest: I wanted to have a visual record of significant observational moments, events, and people in my passage through time. My earliest recollections are of family events being documented with Polaroid B&W cameras. Friends and family owned or ran newspaper companies, and frequent visits to the darkroom to develop film was not uncommon. (And that interest may have been inherited somewhat as I have great-grandparents' ancestral photo albums and negatives going back into the 19th century and predating the Civil War.)

As a trained teacher, frequent traveler, and nature lover, having an SLR or two near at hand had become second nature, but never became my job or primary activity, until very recently. My business pursuits in the 80's led me to become more involved with computers, graphic design software, and tech hardware that spilled over to my hobby interests in photography and videography. With my first purchase of an Olympus 3MP digital camera in 2000 prior to an Alaskan cruise, I decided it was inevitably going to be a digital workflow at some point, and over the past 10 years I've bought and sold most of the DSLR's Canon produced, and gradually made the transition from being known as the computer and IT geek to a camera-geek/photo-software-geek, concentrating mostly on candid and event photography, travel photography, with limited experience in portraiture, landscape, and macro photography.

Since 1995, up to the present time, I have been the primary home school dad and teacher of our three sons. Professionally, I have been a consulting partner in my wife’s extremely successful Mary Kay Cosmetics business; translated: I married up and have been able to pretty much do what I want with my time outside the duties prescribed by the aforesaid responsibilities. Making photos and videos has become a fairly serious hobby during those ensuing years, and in anticipating our youngest’s graduation this month, I have been turning my gaze over the past year toward making my photography interest more of a sustainable business pursuit as well. I am more excited than ever to make great photos, whether I am in the field with my gear, in the “darkroom” with my Macs and iPads, in my studio with the Canon PixmaPro & IPF printers or reading and observing the great photographers who contribute their knowledge through the many available venues thanks to the Internet.

My motto going forward has become “the only photographer you should compare yourself to is the one you used to be.”