I became interested in photography at a very early age. At around age three I sat and watched my father flash a light onto some paper, dip it in “water”, wave his magic wand (the photography tongs) and say a mumbled incantation. Then suddenly a picture would appear on the paper. And at that point I was hooked on photography, and very quickly became interested in fine art photography.
At age fourteen I got permission to use my father’s abandoned equipment to set up my own darkroom in my parent’s basement. It was a slow process when one had to develop a full roll of up to 36 pictures, compare the notes to the results, and try again. But it also weeded out the less than dedicated very quickly. Color was way beyond my budget at that point, so I learned to make due with black and white.
When I left for the Air Force at age eighteen I mostly gave up on being able to support this hobby, until many years later when the age of digital photography arrived and made it so that anyone could take reasonably good pictures. At that point the rusty lessons learned provided me with a good foundation for the advanced photographic techniques that most had no inclination to learn. And a passion was reignited.
I am a very passionate nature photographer. Being a morning person, I was also destined to fall in love with sunrise photography. And for some unknown reason a love of old barns, especially wooden ones, arose. Then my wife Beth became interested in photography, especially macro photography, and a love for a different aspect of nature photography was kindled. And now, bees and butterflies have been added to my many photographic loves.
You can see my fine art photographs here.