Phelps Missouri Community Center, Route 66, 2000. Limited Edition #3 of 99 Photograph

I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box Brownie camera for Christmas. (I still have that camera.) Since our family was quite poor, I built my first enlarger with an oatmeal box, while that same box camera was used as its lens. After graduation from college, a stint in the army followed by photography school, I opened an advertising photography studio in 1954. For over four decades my staff and I earned numerous local, regional and national awards for our achievements in photography, including several "best of show" honors. In 1958 I studied with renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams at his Yosemite National Park workshop in 1980, while still operating my advertising photography studio. My fine art work is shown here as my Yosemite National Park series, Grand Teton National Park series, Other Nice Things series, and Route 66 series (which encompasses 8 collections, one for each state.)