About

Photography fascinates me. It has for over fifty years. Ever since my Cub Scout pack toured the darkroom of Doug Lester, the town’s photographer. The magic I experienced in that darkroom started me down a road that has given me a tremendous amount of pleasure and fulfillment through the years. When I was seven, my camera of choice was the family Kodak Brownie. Later I moved up to my very own brand new Kodak Instamatic. Unfortunately the prints were small because I could only make contact prints using my Ansco contact print box and Kodak Tri-Chem-Pak chemicals. In the late 60’s I bought my first Nikon and a couple years after that my first Hasselblad. Somewhere in that time period, I also bought a surplus Virginia State Police 4×5 Crown Graphic. I don’t think the trooper ever took it out of his trunk. When the guy behind the counter at Roanoke Photo hauled it out to show it to me I just “had” to have it. After all, real photographers, like Doug Lester, used big honking 4×5 press cameras. I had arrived!!! Since then, I have been involved in a lot of different aspects of photography. I’ve shot everything… people, products, sports, news, architecture, travel, audio-visual… I even shot a wedding. After encountering the mother of the bride, I discovered what I didn’t want to shoot. Photography today is a world away from those years. I once developed film, 30 rolls at a time, in a big stainless steel sink. The room was hot and dark and the job was boring. One assistant decided the task was a great opportunity… until I followed the happy scent and spoiled his fun. I embraced digital photography much earlier than most photographers. I first saw a Scitex system in 1978. Eight years later, I purchased a digital imaging system from Management Graphics and saved about $1,000,000. About five years later, I saw a demo of a new software package that had just been introduced for the Mac, Adobe Photoshop v1.0. I immediately went out and bought three new Macs because the capabilities were far better than my “old clunker”. The improvements in imaging technology since I first saw that Scitex system are almost beyond belief. I don’t think my conversion to digital will ever be complete. I still have my film cameras and after working on a new book of O. Winston Link’s photographs, I’m as interested in film as ever. I have a new wet darkroom for processing black-and-white film and making prints using “alternative processes” such as callitypes, gum bichromate and others as the muse hits. I’m dusting off the old 8×10 to see if digital has eroded my technical skills. Today, the quality of the digital image blows me away. I can create images which would never have been possible in the “darkroom days”, even with a lot of skill, materials and time. Today, my favorite camera is my iPhone. Who would have imagined the capabilities of such a device… Dick Tracy perhaps or Scotty (beam me up)??? If you have an upcoming project, I would love to share the adventure. Please touch base today to discuss the possibilities.