I became fascinated with photography at the age of eight when my next door buddy and I both received Kodak film cameras for Christmas. His Dad was a hobby photographer with a film darkroom, so I guess we owe it to him for that idea. My real passion for photography began during my second year of college when one of my music teachers, a photography enthusiast herself, invited me to join her on an afternoon of B&W printing in her basement darkroom. Anyone who has witnessed the gradual manifestation of an image on a blank sheet of white paper in a tray of magical solution will no doubt relate to how that inspired me to pursue photography. I began taking independent study from an art professor who was a retired Navy photographer, giving me access to the college darkroom.
A few months later, I changed my major from Music and Language Education to Photography, transferring to Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester NY. When the Photo Illustration / Journalism department chair created the fine art track at the request of those of us who wanted to focus on photography as a fine art, he warned us that our dream of being like Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Eliot Porter, Robert Frank, Jerry Uelsmann and other fine art photography idols was a long and difficult path to follow. I graduated in 1972 with a BFA in Photography, and of course, discovered that he was right.
Photography took a back seat through what became a successful and mostly happy 30-year career in sales, including sales of office equipment, wholesale art posters, executive recruiting, and my final 20 years in the User Experience consulting and training field.
In 2005, when our two children were on their own, my wife, Bonnie and I moved from eastern Iowa to the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina. Hiking in the mountains and exploring the many waterfalls in the region reignited my photography passion, and Bonnie soon caught the photography bug as well. In 2018, I retired from sales and we started a photo tour and education business, Asheville Photo Tours, LLC.
From the days of film and darkrooms into the digital era, I have continued to find Black and White photography to be the most engaging to me. This portfolio site is a work in progress to share my favorite B&W images, with the intent to advance my technique and artistry through the ongoing curation and refinement of my B&W work.