The Short Version
I make pictures. All kinds of pictures but mostly nature and travel pictures. I'm passionate about making images but also the creative process that produces them. I've learned some key lessons on my journey as a photographer.  Among the most important are that Seeing is a Skill and Creativity is a Muscle. The Photographer's Eye is something anyone can learn.  I also enjoy helping others grow as photographers. My favorite way of doing this is to take small groups of people to amazing places and work on both the craft and creative aspects of image making together. I call it a Whole Brain approach to photography. You don't have to go to amazing places to learn to See, but it's more fun that way ;-). 

The Longer Story
My love affair with photography was born on the night of my 17th birthday when I received a Canon AE-1 Program camera as a birthday gift. But the more important gift I received that night was a book, The Joy of Photography, published by an obscure company called Kodak. Flipping through the pages of the book, filled with images by the masters of the craft, was a revelation…photography was not so much about recording moments but a way of speaking directly and powerfully to something  inside all of us, a way that bypasses all the limitations and ambiguity of language. 

Eventually my growing passion for image making led me to attend the Brooks Institute of Photography and pursue photography as a profession.  I've worked in various aspects of commercial photography throughout my career including product, corporate and architecture. However, my other passions, nature and travel, led me focus on fine art printmaking and eventually open a photography gallery, Gallery 11,  in Steamboat Springs, CO. I operated the gallery for a number of years before returning to California in 2011. 

Along the way, I became increasingly convinced of the importance of creative vision, what I now call the Art of Seeing, in creating images with impact. I also saw that the digital revolution, while delivering amazing new tools and capabilities to photographers, overwhelmingly shifted the emphasis in photography education to its craft aspects: equipment, software and technique. Now I focus my attention on teaching new and established photographers a Whole Brain approach to photography through speaking, writing and destination photography workshops.