My passion started when, as a youth, I experienced the delight of seeing a photograph I made with my own camera emerge magically on paper immersed in liquid.  After learning about the technical process, my appreciation for the artistic photographic image soon followed.  Over the years, developing an ability to visualize, capture and print photographic images remains a welcome challenge.

My first "real" camera came as a gift from my father when I was a teenager.  He realized my serious interest and wanted me to have his prized 35mm German camera, a Zeiss-Ikon Contax, vintage 1950.  Despite my father's praise of the camera, my mother, a trained artist & painter with a keen eye, often observed the photographs it produced lacked fine detail when the small negatives were enlarged.

A family friend and serious amateur photographer taught me the basics of traditional black & white film developing and darkroom printing techniques.  Workshops with professional photographers in New York provided exposure to aesthetics of photography.  As my interest deepened, my mother's comment rang clear.  There were limits to the detail an enlarged 35mm negative could yield. 

Master photographers such as Strand, Evans, Weston, and Adams provided inspiration.  Their photographs were breathtaking! Those photographers all preferred the classic, large format view camera requiring a single sheet of film (4"x5",  5"x7",  8"x10" in size or larger) for each exposure. A larger negative, many times the size of a 35mm negative, yields marvelous detail and clarity.  The view camera must be mounted on a tripod and presents the focused image upside down and reversed on a translucent etched glass viewing screen, called a “ground glass.”  This allows the photographer to compose the photograph carefully while working under a blanket like "dark cloth.” By today’s standards, old-fashioned and time consuming!  However, that slower, contemplative process provided a wonderful model for serious photography.  

Encouragement came from a former assistant of Ansel Adams, Liliane De Cock, whom I met at a New York publishing house.  Liliane encouraged me, then age 26, to show my work to Mr. Adams on an upcoming trip to California.  What a remarkable opportunity!  I wrote asking for an appointment and Mr. Adams personally responded with an invitation to visit at his home studio in Carmel, California.

During our visit he offered fair criticism and thoughtful suggestions about my work.  To my surprise, he said he would enjoy a print of one of my images he especially liked. Today, that photograph is in the Ansel and Virginia Adams Collection at the Center for Creative Photography Archive in Tucson, Arizona. (click here to see the image and Ansel Adams's response).  Workshops with Ansel Adams (and other distinguished photographers I've admired) provide lasting benefits and prove the learning experience never ends.

I became interested in digital imaging in the late nineties, though not convinced the quality could match that of a large format camera - not to mention the significant investment in digital equipment and related computers, software, etc. Over the years, digital quality has evolved dramatically.  This prompted me to explore digital photography in more depth, including color imaging.   Digital processing is quite different from traditional methods and, while challenging at first, can be very rewarding.  

I continue to use film (analog) as well as contemporary digital processes, often in combination.  For example, if using a film camera, I'll process my B&W film in a "wet darkroom" and scan the negative into digital format.  Processing the “digital negative” is done with computer editing software such as PhotoShop. The final print is produced on a high quality digital or inkjet type printer.  Software applications provide a degree of printing control unattainable in the traditional “wet darkroom” printing process.

At times, I considered pursuing photography as a profession, taking on projects including newspaper assignments, architectural photography, magazine advertising and even aerial photography. Although professional work appeared financially attractive, satisfying the requirements of others proved far less rewarding to my artistic soul compared to the enjoyment and satisfaction provided by my personal work. While I admired photographers who succeeded doing both, I preferred being my best and only photography "client".   Accordingly, my vocation is in several businesses unrelated to photography.

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