My Biography in Photography

My fetish for photography actually started toward the end of my college career some 20 years ago when I bought my first 35mm film camera, a Pentax ME Super. After finishing college and moving to Fresno, California I enrolled in a city college photography class. I discovered that if I wondered into the right places, such as the back alleys of Old Town Fresno, I could find and capture on film some amazing, if not surreal, images. To see some of my first photos, look for the black and white photos in my Photojournalism page. Although there is regularly a long intermission and often some traveling between any two great images, I have longed for each of my next great images since the purchase of my first camera.

I continued my photography education at Moorpark City College in 1988 taking a black & white photography class with an instructor named Mr. Grey. I will always remember Mr. Grey because he helped illuminated my inner vision. Mr. Grey introduced me to the work of many great photographers, one such as Henry Cartier-Bresson who’s images I have never grown tired of admiring due to the fact that his intuition enabled him to capture the decisive moment which synthesized the essence of the circumstance. Mr. Grey tuned me into my desire to capture images of people in a natural/photojournalistic style. Ironically, at that time photojournalism was the avant-garde of wedding photography. And though I regret not following my instincts and pursuing photography, instead I followed another path, I have been told, and as I experience my life’s journey, it is never too late to return to what you once loved.

It was not until Christmas of 2003, when my brother sent my son a simple point and shoot 2 mega-pixel digital camera, that I seriously regained my momentum toward becoming a dedicated photographer. This was the first digital camera to enter my sphere of influence and lucky for me, my son was not interested in the camera his uncle had sent him as he would have had great difficulty prying it from my fingers. It was an exhilarating experience rekindling the infatuation I have for photography. I instinctively began studying the light that falls on a person’s face, the geometric patterns formed by shadows and color, and the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated objects. Since that humble entry into the digital world of photography I have attended classes at Ventura College and Santa Fe Photography Workshops, intensely studied Photoshop and lighting techniques, saved my “loose change” to buy professional equipment when I could afford it and shot and shot and shot. Thinking back on my first camera, my class with Mr. Grey, and my son’s Christmas gift from his uncle (which he never missed - he’s successfully pursuing video at this time), my initial enlightenment for my love of photography has never dimmed. I hope you enjoy what you see.