About Me

 
 

Photography has been a lifelong hobby for me that started when I was about 13 years old. I grew up using fully manual film cameras and developing film and making black-and-white prints in a wet chemistry home darkroom. In my adult life, I later did my own color prints from slides and negatives at home. Trust me, today's "digital darkroom" is much easier to use!

I transitioned to full digital in 2003 shortly after my wife and I took an amazing trip to Africa to visit Ethiopia and Kenya and then Rome and Paris. I spent nearly $1200 on over a hundred rolls of film, developing, slides, and prints on that trip. I realized I'd soon be money ahead to get a good digital SLR! On that trip, we had three film cameras and my first digital camera (first-generation Canon Powershot G1) with a whopping 3.3 megapixels. I had all the film negatives and slides scanned when we had the film developed so all the photos were "digital" from that trip. 

I grew up in southern California and moved to Seattle in 1979 about a year after I graduated from college. My wife Bonnie and I met in Seattle in 1996 and got married in 2000. We moved to the island of Oahu in Hawaii in 2010 for a good job opportunity and lived there for about three and half years. While living in Hawaii, I started selling my prints at craft shows and local gift shops as a sideline to my "day job".  I have to say living in Hawaii really rekindled my passion for photography and got me very interested in sunsets and sunrises. They are my favorite “subjects” to shoot: always challenging and different, sometimes a complete bust but sometimes very rewarding,

We moved back to Seattle in 2013 and really love living here again. We now live in Port Angeles, Washington (on the “Olympic Peninsula”). We have an adult son and two young grandkids (both boys) one of whom has caught the "shutterbug" virus and the other has caught the "engineer" virus, both I think I had something to do with :-).

I upgraded to the new Nizon Z8 full-frame mirrorless camera from my prior Nikon D-850 DSLR the summer of 2023. My "go-to" workhorse lens is a 24-120mm f4 zoom. It’s a versatile, sharp lens with an excellent 24mm wide-angle to 120mm modest tele zoom range. I also use my 14-30mm f4 wide-angle zoom for sunsets and sunrises and my 20mm f1.8 for astrophotography. I had a Minolta film SLR a long time ago, but other than that, I've always used Nikon SLR cameras since I bought my first one in college (a Nikon FE). My first DSLR was the Nikon D-100, then I had a D-200 for many years, followed by a D-7100, D-7200, and D-500 before I took the big step to the D-850 full-frame DSLR in 2022 and then the Nikon Z8 mirrorless camera in July 2023. I do my own proof and small lot prints at home with a Canon PROGRAF PRO‑1000 inkjet printer that can make professional-quality archival prints up to 17 x 22". Many of the photographs I sell are "metal" or "acrylic" prints made by Bay Photo (excellent quality and customer service - highly recommended).

I was recently elected as the Vice President of the Olympic Peaks Camera Club of Sequim, WA for 2023-2024, and I am a member of the Photographic Society of America. I am a Nikon Professional Services member which allows me priority access to new Nikon gear, equipment loaners, and expedited repairs.

Please feel free to contact me by email. You can also visit my social media pages on Facebook and LinkedIn. 


Current gear list:

  • Nikon Z8 full frame 45mp mirrorless camera body

  • Nikon Z mount 24-120mm f4 zoom (my daily workhorse lens)

  • Nikon Z mount 70-200mm f2.8 telephoto zoom lens

  • Nikon Z mount 14-30mm f4 wide-angle zoom lens

  • Nikon Z mount 40mm f2 lens

  • Nikon Z mount 105mm f2.8 macro lens (able to shoot at 1:1 magnification)

  • Nikon F mount 200-500mm f5.6 super-telephoto zoom lens(great for birds and moon photos)

  • Nikon F mount 20mm f1.8 wide-angle prime lens (great for astrophotography)

  • Nikon F mount 50mm f1.4 “normal” prime lens

  • Manfrotto 190CX Pro3 carbon fiber tripod with "fluid” video head

  • Peak Design "everyday backpack" (best photo gear backpack I've ever used)

  • Canon PROGRAF PRO-1000 17" wide professional printer

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic for photo management and editing

  • Apple 2019 Macbook Pro 16” laptop for editing