When I think about photography and the images I have created, I go back to the beginning of this “third career” and look at how I have progressed. It has not always been photography. In fact, it wasn’t until I retired that I realized the camera my wife had given me as a retirement gift, was going to be the impetus for me to start my photography career. Prior to photography, it was jet airplanes and fire engines.
I had the good fortune to of having two great careers prior to retirement. I spent a good portion of my life flying jet aircraft for a national airline, and then serving as a public servant in the fire service, spending twenty-six years as a fire chief. Photography became my passion after retirement and now is rapidly becoming my full-time “retirement career.”
Artist Statement:
Photography is meant to take us on journeys. Journeys give our daily lives context and meaning. Some journeys remind us of events in our past; others document and preserve the reality of what we see and experience today.
As a photographer, I can best be described as a “Generalist,” one who does not “specialize in any one photography genre. Simply put, I am a photographer who thoroughly enjoys the art and science of photography, a photographer who is fulfilled only when capturing images of those special art forms, observations, or occurrences that are part of our daily lives. It is those every day, yet so often overlooked life activities, that drive me to photograph – the activities of people and children at work and play, the uniqueness of the environments and natural landscapes in which we live, and through which we travel every day, and especially the somewhat secret lives of wildlife and nature. That is what drives me to photograph. I will photograph mostly anything, but my expertise seems to center within wildlife, landscape and portrait genres.
Photography is my art form, my inspiration for capturing those moments we often lose to memory. The wildlife I capture with my camera hopefully will provide some impetus for thought for those with inquisitive minds, who never have an opportunity to see wild animals in their natural environment. Hopefully the wildlife images shared herein will be here for generations to come. But if not, their image will be captured and preserved to show us who they were and where they lived.
Valley Arts Group 