Photography has always been a feeling of love. Similar to a love one would have toward their spouse or significant other. It’s a love that is personal. She has the same wants, needs, desires and emotions as a person does. When she’s happy, loving and adorable, I can see incredible forms, abstracts, scenics, etc. It is a wonderful feeling.

If she’s mad – she’s very mad. She can be very cold and quiet. The shutters of the equipment (her eyes) remain quiet, staring at me. Then one morning after a while, I will look at her and all is forgiven. We will work together as one, that is until I get her mad again.

When I was in college, in the 70s, I got to meet Ansel Adams several times at his home in Carmel, California. He had an incredible wealth of knowledge. At the same time, I got to know Brett Weston. Getting to know Brett as a person and friend was a great inspiration. I even had the opportunity to photograph with him at Point Lobos. I’m finally beginning to understand his drive and love for his work.

Photography is like a personal relationship. There’s a lot of work and emotional effort but the rewards outweigh any turmoil it creates. I couldn’t give up photography anymore than I could give up on a marriage.

Artist Biography :
As I consider myself an artist, my formal education served more as a point of inspiration or revelation of my own abilities and my need to explore them than an academic rite of passage. I was fortunate in attending Cypress College in Cypress, California, where I majored in Photography. I say that I was fortunate in my educational opportunity since I was privileged to work with professors, who were world-class instructors and accomplished Photographic artists and technicians in their own rights. They served as more than college professors; more like mentors or master craftsmen to whom I voluntarily apprenticed myself. Collectively, they were the primary influence in firing my passion for Photography and in teaching me how to mold my eagerness and excitement into skill and artistry. I owe what capabilities I have achieved in the art form of Photography to my mentors: David F. Drake, graduate of the Art Center, John Wycoff, an accomplished commercial and advertising photographer and Marshal LaCour, author of Photo Technologies, a reference work in the field quoted in various encyclopedias and formal Photography teaching texts.

My education at Cypress was not restricted to the formal classes. As a student, I befriended a peer, John Woods, a student of art a year ahead of me at Cypress. Through John’s friendship I had opportunity to meet and gain great insight from such notable artists as Ansel Adams and Brett Weston.

On visits to Carmel, California, Brett often extended his hospitality in allowing me to be a guest in his home. These visits often involved field trips for shoots on Point Lobos. Again, as with my professors, I found the greatest opportunity for education and development of my own Photographic style in observing the artistic endeavors of those whom I recognized and respected as more accomplished than myself.

Since College, I have continued to learn by doing and by watching, listening and questioning other Photographic artists. My Photographic style has evolved into one of romantic realism ¾ portraying the sights of the world, but through my perspective as someone who continues to be awestruck by the beauty, diversity and complexity of the world in which we live. I focus on the environment not the inhabitants. We are all transient elements on the landscape. The world continues on, whether we occupy it or not. I have developed my style and portfolio through extensive creative work in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana and Texas.

I continue to aggressively seek to grow as an artist and observing interpreter of the world. After many years of tutelage, I am beginning to seek the fruits of my labors and those of my very patient mentors.