I picked up a camera for the first time as a junior in high school, shooting for my school's yearbook and newspaper. That was 48 years ago, and in one form or another, the camera has never really left my hands since.
I grew up in Houston, Texas, where that early interest in photography followed me through college. While earning a dual Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Psychology from Houston Christian University (Class of 1986), I worked as a photographer for the school's Office of Public Relations — my first taste of photography as something more than a hobby. From there, my career took a different path: three decades in marketing and communications. It was good work, and it kept me close to storytelling, but the camera spent a lot of those years in the background.
That changed in 2018, when I retired and finally had the time to give photography the attention I'd always wanted to. I've spent the years since studying the craft in earnest — learning, practicing, and chasing better light. In 2011, I traded Houston for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has been home base ever since, though I'm rarely there for long.
Photography gave me a good excuse to keep moving, and I've taken it — 43 states and more than thirty-three countries across Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. I'm less interested in adding up the count than in what I find once I get there — the fjords of Norway, the temples of Cambodia, the canals of the Netherlands, the hill towns of Sikkim, the moai of Easter Island. I get up early, seek out the places that aren't on the postcards, and try to let the light do most of the talking. Next January, I'm headed to Antarctica.
My photography mostly comes down to three genres: landscapes, nature, and street photography.
Each one asks something different of me. Landscapes mean waiting — for the light to change, for the sky to do something interesting, for a scene to come together. Nature photography is about staying still and paying attention, letting the world be what it is without me getting in the way. Street photography is the opposite — quick instincts, good timing, catching a moment before it's gone.
Different as they are, they come from the same habit: paying attention, staying curious, and noticing the picture that's already there if you slow down enough to see it.
For all that movement, two places pull me back every year without fail — three and a half months each summer in Twillingate, Newfoundland, and the month of October in Maine, especially around Acadia National Park. Everything else might change, but those two stays are fixed points on the calendar.
Forty-eight years on, I'm still chasing the same thing I was after as a teenager with my first camera — good light, an honest moment, a place worth slowing down for. Whether it's a wide landscape, a quiet street corner, or something wild and unscripted, that's what I'm after. Thanks for taking a look around — if something here catches your eye, I'd love to hear from you.
