Born and raised in Western New York, some of my best childhood memories are of camping with my grandparents and with the Boy Scouts. Those early outdoor adventures were influential in my developing a keen appreciation for the natural beauty of God’s good earth and the infinite combinations of shape, color and texture we can find in it. When I view a scene or an image the first things I see are shapes, colors and textures, and only afterwards do I see the objects represented. Looking back on some of my earliest photos, taken with my Dad’s top-view box camera (yes, I still have every print and every negative I ever shot), I was always searching for a unique perspective in hope of making an interesting image beyond the strained smiles of siblings who didn’t want to pose.

Fast forward to the 21st century. A rewarding career as a Certified Public Accountant. We were not quite empty nesters yet, but almost done with the task of raising and educating four sons, when the opportunity arose to acquire our own cabin in the woods of the Adirondacks. For many years we had been vacationing at least annually in Cape Cod, where my interest in photography began to resurface in earnest. Now I was spending most of my spare time surrounded by woods, waters and mountains, and those shapes, colors and textures I had come to appreciate so well, camera in hand. Whether it’s on the Cape, in the Adirondacks or at home, I return to the same locations over and over again because it’s always different – weather, lighting, time of day, time of year. To quote a certain Mr. Gump, “You never know what you’re gonna get.” You just have to be there to get it.

Whether it’s a sweeping panoramic landscape or a smaller subject (I like to think of it as an intimate landscape), my goals in creating a new image are several, one or more of which may be represented in any particular shot. First, I want you to see what I saw. Maybe you couldn’t be there; now you can experience it. Or perhaps you want a remembrance of your summer visit; I’d like to help you remember that special place. Besides seeing what I saw, I’d like you to see how I saw it. A unique perspective on a familiar sight (a leaf?). Something you saw but didn’t take the time to observe (the frosted tree line at sunrise?). Or something that was right in front of you as you walked past without giving it a second thought (a puddle?). But I believe photography doesn’t need to be always serious, so you will also find me occasionally tending toward the whimsical, perhaps at times even downright silly. Hey, God gave us this beautiful world full of shapes, colors and textures, along with a sense of humor. I say, let’s use it.