Sultry Innocence Photograph

My name is Terry McGraw. Born late in my parents' life, my father retired when I was six years old and moved the family to rural NW Oklahoma where I went through school, eventually graduating high school in the farming community of Greenfield, with a class of nine. While I could possibly scrape together enough college credits to count for a couple years, I ran out of money, and, let's face it, interest in college. I didn't know what I wanted in life but whatever is was, I didn't think I'd ever find it in Oklahoma so I ventured out west.On February 1st of 1980, I got off the bus in downtown Los Angeles, California. After teaching in private schools for several years I became interested in real estate and ended up as a project manager for a real estate developer in Temecula, California. If you've ever heard of the "Hobie Cat" catamaran, the builder of those double-hulled boats, Hobart (Hobie) Alter, was the financial partner in the company I worked for. After 25 years in SoCal, I moved back to my old rural Oklahoma stomping grounds with my wife and adopted son. About 4 years later, in January of 2008, I bought my first "real" camera and started taking pictures of anyone and anything thing that would stand still long enough for me to click the shutter. It wasn't long before the local paper in our small town hired me to take pictures at the local high school sports events and write the articles. I started shooting with models soon after that and now have been published in magazines from San Diego to Dublin. I am mostly self-taught in the field of photography. I have attended classes on lighting and have had the privilege of working several photographers who have helped me learn my craft. I am regarded by some as being among the top photographers in the state of Oklahoma although not by any official pronouncement of which I am aware. I have worked with models from Minnesota to Mississippi, from south Texas to South Carolina, some of whom have appeared in publications you've heard of. I love the outdoors and I inherited a great love for "critters" from my dear old mother. So nature and wildlife (and cats...that's my adorable little Binkers in my profile pic) have become a common target of my Canon. As I learned about photography I found that many of the concepts associated with creating a good picture were already at work in my brain. My work will speak for itself.