I’m an explorer. I look to create a world on the canvas of the ground glass of my camera. As I look around, I let go of my thoughts and get to a place of intuition and feeling. I never know what will catch my eye and resonate within. Whatever object is on my ground glass is like a skeleton. It provides the structure of the world I create. Built upon the structure on the canvas is the quality and direction of the light. The shapes, textures, and patterns draw me into my ground glass world surrounded by four walls. I work on my canvas, making small adjustments, getting everything just right. What to include? What to leave out? At some point, it feels right and I make the exposure.

          Back in my studio I again let go of my thoughts and go to a place of intuition and feeling as I begin working with the slide or negative. I now have my canvas world to work and play in. What do I want to emphasize? What is less important? Changing the black and white tones and raising or lowering contrast in different parts of the canvas, I refine the world I am creating. Some changes are drastic; others are minor. Sometimes the changes just flow easily and quickly. Other times, it is a struggle, with many dead ends. The road is never straight and I must listen carefully to hear where the image wants to go.

I see my image making as an attempt to find and create beauty out of the visual layers in the world. I particularly enjoy looking at ordinary things and by looking more closely and visually extracting a part of what I see, finding a new visual world within the larger "ordinary" world.  Often the result is greater simplicity in my subject with one or two elements becoming the theme of the work.  When all the elements of the image making process come together, magic happens……                      

           My intent with photography is to create an emotional reaction where I draw the viewer into the image.  Ideally, I would like to grab them emotionally even before they can respond to the “thing” of the image on an intellectual level.  Without the reference point of “what the subject is”, they can then let go and visually explore an image. They are able to experience the image on a gut level and create any personal meaning for themselves from the inside out."

          I have been photographing for over 30 years.  I've read many books on photography and taken numerous workshops over the last 10 years.

Some Classes & Workshops I have taken:

        2012   Vincent Versace - Master Printing Workshop

        2006   Allan Caddy - Palouse Country Workshop

        1998   Bruce Barnbaum – Provence & the French Alps

        1997   Ray McSavaney & Carol Brown – Capitol Reef NP Workshop

        1997    Ruth Bernhard – The Art of Seeing

        1996     Howard Bond - Unsharp Masking

        1995     Bruce Barnbaum - The Complete Photographic Process

        1995     Mark Griffith - Zone System Workshop

        1995     Mark Griffith - Black & White Photography Workshop

        1993     Northwest Center for Photography - Light Control

        1993     Lisl Dennis - Travel Photography Workshop

        1992     George Lepp - Olympic National Park Workshop

        1992     Allan Caddy - Palouse Country Workshop

        1991     Dick Garvey - Color Photography Workshop

        1975     Oregon State University - Black & White Photography