About
I was raised in East Tennessee and soon acquired a love of the out doors. Early on I was rising early in the morning to head out for a day’s adventure. Just being out in the woods, the mountains, the lakes, gave me a feeling of being alive. It still does. Rain, snow, or shine.
From early childhood art in our house was created by my father. His drawings were all that hung in our living room. As I remember my uncles on dad’s side had similar talent with drawing and wood sculpture. In my early years I believed that everyone did their own art. In my early school years free time when the weather was bad was often spent drawing. Thank God, we did not have a television in my early years and when we did get one there were these wonderful “You Can Learn to Drawn” and “You Can Paint” programs to learn from. It was all in black and white. No color to distract you from shading, form, and lines of composition.
Somewhere along mid-elementary school I acquired a Kodak Brownie camera. Snap shots were not my thing. I would rather take a shot of my foot sticking out the window of our car as we rode back from the mountains. Around the age of 19 or so I bought an Agfa range finder camera. A little later my first SLR and then later my second SLR. I had a serious problem. It was obvious that I needed professional help. But, instead I bought more lens and a daylight loader. And so it went until marriage and two wonderful children meant I need to get rid of the developing chemicals and watch expenses. During this time my father approached retirement and took up photography. His work was my first exposure to true quality fine art photography. His work is still my best inspiration.
Works
