Artist Statement

I've never thought of myself as an artist.  I just enjoy playing with my camera, and when I'm done I end up with a bunch of pretty pictures  that some people consider art. 

In the spring of 1973, when I was 12, I took my first photograph with my dad's Pentax Spotmatic II. That summer, I took my first photography class and got my first camera (Argus C3), a few months later I got an SLR (Minolta SRT-101) and Dad and I  made a darkroom in the downstairs bathroom. After I graduated college I no longer had access to a darkroom, and without control over the full process photography as a serious hobby went on hiatus for about 25 years.

I still enjoyed taking photos, and when I did take them I put effort into doing a good job, but they were usually pictures of things, or events, rather than the point of the exercise.  By 2007, I had had a couple of digital point and shoots that gave me some level of control over the camera, and was easing back into photography as a hobby. Then in late 2007 I got my first Digital SLR and something clicked. Photography was fun again, and rather than costing twenty five cents or so, every time I pressed the shutter, at a fraction of a cent for hard drive space, it was practically free.  Whenever I had a few free minutes I could wander about with my camera and take some photos.

One of the things that I love about photography is that it gives me an opportunity to exercise both my aesthetic skills and my technical problem solving skills.  I particularly love dancing on the edge of what is possible, taking photos that were not possible with existing technology just a few years before such as my night time landscapes.

Another thing that I love about photography is the meditative aspect, taking photos can require being so in the moment, paying attention to everything happening, thinking about exposure, composition, light, dynamic range, timing and paradoxically experiencing so much in the moment that a minute later I can barely remember any details of what had just transpired.  In the same way, I love that photography is not something that can ever be perfected, that there will always be some way to improve my skills.