I bought my first camera while serving in the Army in 1969. After serving 1 yr, 6 mos, 28 days, and 45 minutes of involuntarily servitude I enrolled in the local junior college with a major in Photography. One of our assignments was to attend a photo exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of Art (Norton Simon Museum). The exhibit was the works of Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock and Ansel Adams. Having, at that time, no interest or knowledge of art, I was floored by what I saw. The Bullock and Adams landscapes were incredible, while the Weston left me with feeling a bit flat - but that was to change after a few years. I left the exhibit wanting to know how to make imagery like I had just experienced.

My English 101 class required a term paper so I decided to write on the history of photography, my main source was a two volume set by Helmut Gernshiem, published out of the Univ. of Texas. That gave me a foundation on the technical aspects and main practitioners of the art in the first century of photography. But after taking 5 years of night school to get an AA, I had no understanding of control over exposure and development, let alone the fine print. This was because the two photo instructors at the college also did not have any understanding, they were conceptual artist types who rejected mastery of the tools.

In 1976 I spent the summer and fall bumming around Europe with a backpack, a tent, my camera and 15 rolls of Ektachrome. I spent my time going to Art Museums and meeting people from all over the world. Upon returning I managed to get accepted to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The two main things I gained while at Art Center was a technical mastery of the processes involved from exposure through to the print, and a deep dislike of advertising. I later read 3 histories of photography and collected monographs. I studied the works of most of the early and mid 20th Century photographers, including the Westons, Adams, Minor White etc.

During and after college I was able to produce works that were shown in a few of the galleries in the LA and Orange County areas. I entered shows/contests put on at colleges and won a couple of purchase awards. My “Alternate Evolutions” series was shown at the Victoria Kagan Gallery, the Bowers Museum and one was the featured image on a poster for the Orange County Arts League, all in association with art events attached to the 1984 LA Olympics.

About 1990 I mostly lost interest in the art.

I picked up my first digital camera in 2004 because both of my Nikons died of loneliness. I didn’t use it creatively for another decade when my brother invited me on a trip to Death Valley for new years. I re-caught the bug then and had to re-equip.

It took effort and a while to learn Lightroom but I am pretty good with it while still learning Photoshop. I shoot both color and B&W and prefer the latter. These days I consider photography my hobby.