Industrial Color, Rome, NY 2008 Photograph

My photographic work derives from a life long love of the natural world and the realization that all art and design ultimately derives from that world. Photography has my way of occasionally breaking away from the fluorescent lights and constant human blather that is often a necessary part of earning a living. It was important for me to go beyond snapshots and practice photography as a craft, so I began by emulating the work of master pictorial photographers such a Ansel Adams, Elliott Porter, and Joseph Muench. These individuals produced their brilliantly detailed work with large format view cameras. This is a camera design that uses one sheet of 4X5 inch or larger film per photograph, and a light tight bellows to focus the lens. This is photography that is all manual and a single shot can take a half an hour to execute. There are a thousand ways to make a mistake and I made plenty. The value of this effort is in the high level of detail that can be preserved in a large sheet of film. I have since moved on to embrace digital photography and all its advantages. Especially important to me is the avoidance of harsh darkroom chemicals and their environmental damage. All of my images have been processed and printed digitally. Many derive from digital scans of my archive of color transparencies and b&w negatives but many are also direct digital photographs. Over the years, my photographs have appeared in Adirondack Life, Audubon Calendars, Shutterbug Magazine, New York Alive, National Wildlife, Outdoor & Travel Photography, Utica Observer Dispatch, and the Salt Lake City Tribune. These occasional successes have let me know that other eyes have approved.