I was raised in Seattle, Washington and now live in Port Townsend. I am retired and spend my time working on photography. I also teach digital photo processing classes at the Port Townsend School of the Arts. (https://ptschoolofthearts.org/)
My main interests (besides photography) are reading, hiking, and ham radio.
While I work both with black and white and color images, I really love B&W. I think that B&W emphasizes form and tone in those images where colors are not essential. I use a Epson Surecolor P800 printer for pigment based archival prints. My favorite paper (currently) is Epson Hot Press Bright, but I also use a lot of Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White.
Biographic Stuff
In 5th grade, an uncle set me up with my first darkroom and gave me an Argus C-3 (a 35mm rangefinder). I had a couple of old box cameras before that, but the Argus was my first camera that had settings. I took a year of photography in high school.
I got a degree in Geology at the University of Washington and returned in 1972 for a degree in Chemistry. I ended up spending my student loan on art supplies and dropping out. In 1973, I had a show of some of abstract expressionist acrylics in an off-Pioneer Square gallery. In 1972-74, I displayed photography and paintings at several Seattle businesses.
In the early ’80’s, I took two years of welding sculpture at South Seattle Community College. I then cast bronze at the foundry at Pratt Fine Arts, working with Louise McDowell. For a year or so, I was Louise’s technical assistant. When I showed the photos I took of bronze pours, I had requests from artists at Pratt to do their portfolio photography. For several years, I supplemented my income with portfolio work.
For a steady income, I worked in student transportation. I started out as a school bus driver in 1977 and retired in 2016 as the Director of Student Transportation at OSPI.
While working, my art was mostly photography, while I read extensively in technique and history. I was particularly influenced by Ira Spring, Galen Rowell, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.
Since I retired in 2016, I have refined my digital post-processing techniques through Lynda.com training, where my favorite instructors were Ben Long, Justin Reznick, Chris Orwig and Konrad Eek.