When I was growing up I loved exploring the wild hilly forests around where I lived with my family near Willits, CA. As a young child I would often carry a spear or a bow with arrows in hopes of killing smaller wild animals to eat and in case I had to defend myself against the big fierce ones. At nine years old, I convinced my parents to help me buy a good camera system with a telephoto lens, and from then on I focused most of my efforts on getting beautiful photographs of both the big and small wild creatures. My parents, who were back-to-the-land hippy types, allowed me to roam freely and never sent me to school, so I was able to spend much of my time quietly creeping through the woods and meadows finding mushrooms, bird nests, animal dens, and the hidden springs where the small birds and animals come to drink. As a young adult I expanded my realm of interest to include photographing forest and ocean scenes as well, and soon I moved to the Mendocino coast to be nearer the ocean and the art galleries where I could sell my work.
Now approaching middle age, I’m married and live with my wife in a house at the edge of a vast second growth redwood forest a few miles inland from the ocean near Fort Bragg, CA.
I still love exploring the local forests and the rocky shoreline of northern California with all its steep crumbling cliffs, secret sea caves, arches and tunnels, sink holes, concealed river otter dens, osprey nests in tall fir trees, fern filled stream canyons laced with thorny vines, and tide pools full of strange and colorful sea life. There are many places where for just a few days each year all the conditions of light angle, wave action and weather conditions come together to create the potential for a beautiful photograph. When I manage to time everything right and be there with my camera when something amazing happens, that’s one of my greatest joys.