A Bit About Me

As you can see from the self portrait on the right, I haven't changed much in the last 60+ years. I still have the hat but I'm definitely taller.

I've always enjoyed looking at photographs and obtained my first camera in college. All I could afford was an inexpensive Kodak Instamatic. I was amazed to find that I couldn't capture the wonderful photographs I saw in magazines and hanging on gallery walls. I wanted to photograph eagles in flight, beautiful sunsets and breathtaking scenery but my skills and Instamatic weren't up to the task. I decided that great photographs probably had something to do with knowing what you are doing and using quality equipment. My Instamatic could take nice snapshots but I wanted to take "photographs."

I took a photography course in college which was taught using the Speed Graphic which was a common camera used by news photographers and law enforcement at the time. It used a large 4"x5" negative and we learned to develop the film and create prints. This was long before digital cameras were on the scene but the Speed Graphic was a great camera if a bit cumbersome to use. As a result of the class I learned that I had a lot to learn about photography and that a good camera, like a Speed Graphic, can give me a photograph that was far superior to what my Instamatic could produce.

Years passed and my interest in photograph continued on a back burner as my life was consumed with work and family. I managed to acquire a quality 35mm Canon SLR camera along the way and my photography was improving. I was able to do some photography work during my law enforcement career and even had some photographs published but my desire was to pursue photograph as an art form. I wanted to create images that stood out, something beyond snapshots.

My opportunity to pursue photography came with my retirement and with the arrival of digital technology. I invested in quality digital camera gear and began to learn the wonders of modern cameras and photo processing software. I was finding ways to take my images to new levels and to scratch an artistic itch that had been ignored for too many years. Nature and wildlife are my favorite photographic subjects but I'll point my Canon at anything that interests me.

Today I sell my photography through a few small galleries in northern California and off my fine art website which you will find here.

I also use my photography and digital art to create a wide variety of gift products (mugs, shirts, hats, mouse pads, coasters, etc.) on my Zazzle website here.

Don't forget to check out some of my photography related lenses on SQUIDOO here.

In my retirement I began to write about my life growing up on a cattle ranch. At first I wasn't intending to write a book, I was chronicling my life and adventures on the ranch for my grandcritters who were growing up in the city. My writings grew rather extensive as I would make notes as memories came to me and later flesh the memories out into stories of ranch life. My book is titled; Life at The End of a Dirt Road and I grew up with three brothers literally at the end of a long dirt road. The book is available on Amazon and all the usual places. I have a lens here on SQUIDOO that will tell you much more about the book and how it came to be published so you can read about it here.

Writing a book is a lot of work but it's also a great experience. If you have an itch to write and feel you have some ingrown stories or something interesting to write about I would encourage you to go for it. Check out the lens on my book at the link above for some tips and ideas but don't stop there. Search other lenses on writing and do your homework. The key is to start keeping notes on what you want to write about and start writing! You can do it!