ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

I blame it on the Farm Journal.   As a 5th grade fund raiser in Upper Michigan, I sold the most subscriptions, winning a plastic Ansco 620 camera for my efforts. Perhaps the frustration of trying to capture a decent black and white image with such a camera at such an early age lead me on this odyssey to capture the perfect image using the best equipment.

After college (BS and MS in Biology, Northern Michigan University), I began working for the National Park Service in Denali National Park (Alaska), in various jobs (park technician, caribou researcher, road maintenance) so that I could remain close to (one might say "be part of") the wonders of Nature.   And to be able to record what I experienced on film, and then digitally.

When the wilds of Alaska started to feel too tame, I extended my image quest to Africa.  First to the marvels of East Africa (very few places can surpass the quality and quantity of wildlife on the Masai Mara, or the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest on the Serengeti Plains), then to the deserts and arid bushveld of Southern Africa (the stark deserts of Namibia, contrasted with the lush Okavango Delta in Botswana).

Lately, in addition to Africa, I've sort of made a full circle of my interests and started photographing in Iceland--so Alaskan, but so not.  I guess I'm enjoying photographic subjects that are more static, inviting my mind to find different compositions, backgrounds and special effects.   Contrast this to wildlife photography, where access and movement is usually limited, and the action can be over in seconds.

To make the circle even more complete (if not carried out to the extreme), I've journeyed to the Southern Islands (The Falklands and South Georgia Island) and the Antarctic Peninsula three times. The scale of birdlife and scenery was mind boggling, to say the least! I've also photographed in Svalbard (Norway) in both late winter and summer, photographing polar bears and walrus in the High Arctic, even getting within 600 miles of the North Pole.

Before retiring, during the 40+ years as a professional photographer, my images had appeared in most of the major wildlife and nature-oriented magazines (e.g., Alaska, Audubon, Geo, National and International Wildlife, Natural History, Ranger Rick), in books (e.g., National Geographic Society, National Wildlife Federation, Reader’s Digest), and in calendars (e.g., Audubon, Greatland Graphics, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund).