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ABOUT

From the Start....
My roots in nature photography trace directly back to my childhood in northern Wisconsin. I grew up hunting small game, deer, fishing for bass, walleye, and Northern Pike, and camping along the banks of the Deerskin River near the Yellow Birch resort in Eagle River, which my family owned.
In the summers I would read about the things that interested me, scouring books for the best and latest techniques to improve my rifle or shotgun skills, or hone my fishing capabilities, which even at the age of 12, were vitally important to my standing in the community. As little more than a child I could always tell which log piles probably held cottontail rabbits, and which pine stands would certainly yield ruffed grouse. Although we called them partridge, and which eddys held trout, resting from the swift currents of the Deerskin river.
My original intent was to improve a hunting technique referred to as “still hunting” which involves not actually persueing game but instead remaining perfectly still until the game comes to you. I found a book entitled “The Still Hunt” at the little one room library in my school. I took it home and began pouring over its pages, soon to make an astounding discovery.. It had nothing at all to do with hunting. Instead it was a book about nature photography. Hunting not with a gun but a camera. Shooting animals with film instead of a rifle or shotgun. It seemed like a perfect fit for me. I already knew where most of the animals in Northern Wisconsin were! I could locate anything from a chick a dee to a black bear pretty easily. This would be great!
My family had very little money but we did have the family Insta-Matic which I declared to be mine and set out as a nature photographer. At the age of 11. My first images were captured by climbing a tree in our yard and photographing a robins nest, complete with chicks. It was exhilarating. As I recall, the chicks in the image were barely visible, though those images are long since gone.

Cameras came and went, and I never had anything worth more than $50 until I was in High School. By then I had become an official staff photographer at the Glenbard East High School Yearbook. I never really enjoyed that type of photography, but it was something to photograph. My lifelong love of photography had begun.

My next ambition was to become a working photojournalist. And I was not going to let the fact that I was 15 years old deter me. This would truly be the pinnacle of photography. I was able to secure a job at the local newspaper, photographing houses for sale for $1.00 per house. In return I was to drive to the home, get several shots from several angles, process the Tri-X film in old fashioned HC-110 chemistry at my home film lab, which I had set up in the basement, and deliver them to the paper on Friday. The only rub was that I had to have my mother take me to these houses because at 15, I was still not old enough to drive a car!

At 16, one of my images appeared 5 by 7 inches on the front page of the “Lombardian”. It was my youngest brother Brian seemingly contemplating his first day of school from the swing set in our front yard. It was the height of my photojournalism career. That one I still have.

After High School I turned to what I thought surely must be the pinnacle of photography. Weddings and portraiture. Studio photography. I began working under a local established professional in my town, originally just tagging along as an assistant and second camera shooter, to eventually being assigned the occasional birthday or Bar-Mitzvah by myself. The hours were extremely long, sometimes beginning at the brides house when she woke up and extending till the reception ended 18 hours later. You have to respect photographers that work that hard, but it was not for me.

Next I moved into commercial advertising photography, which I truly loved. I began as an assistant to a very successful Chicago advertising photographer named Dick Tunison. I worked setting up and breaking down Lowell lights, Nikon and Hasselblad, and 4 X 5 Sinar cameras, tripods, doing crowd control at our outdoor shoots. And the best part was he was all location work. No studios. I loved getting out of the studios and reception halls that I had been shooting in and back into the outdoors. We shot Caterpillar tractor brochures in the farm fields of Peoria Illinois, Lawn Boy lawn mowers on a golf course in South Carolina, Mercedes Benz “AMG” division on the autobahn and on the grounds of some of Germanys finest castles. I fell in love with that type of photography and intended to make it my lifes work. I filled up a portfolio full of images that demonstrated my ability to shoot annual reports and magazine ads and began hoofing it up and down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue looking for assignments, but at 19 years old I have to say I was not taken very seriously. I had art directors come right out and ask me how old I was. It would be tough to do location photography when I was not old enough to rent a car.

That was the year I married my lovely wife Karen whom I’d met in my sophomore year in high school. I was unable to make enough money to call photography a living in the hyper competitive field of commercial photography, and finally, the theft of all of my (un-insured) camera equipment spelled the end of my hopes for the time being.

I developed a second career path as a pilot shortly thereafter, trading the time and money I used for equipment and marketing for flying lessons. It was the total focus of my career aspirations from then on, and combined with helping Karen raise our 2 children, Katie and Andy, it took all of my time for the next 15 years.

I felt I had the time to resume my photography again in 2000, with the advent of digital and a period of reduced responsibilities. This time I got back to my roots in nature and wildlife photography, occasionally mixing in a scenic or cityscape to avoid getting stale. My travel priviledges as a pilot allow me to stretch occasionally into the travel images I come across. My travels have allowed me to access some of the worlds most beautiful places. Who can resist an opportunity to create images of Venice, or the Greek Islands or the Islands of the Caribbean? As hard as I try to establish a brand in the nature and wildlife fields, I will always have a love for travel photography

Now I am back in my beloved Wisconsin. The kids are all grown and married off, and I have come full circle, back to climbing the trees and scanning for elusive animals and the beautiful landscapes in which they reside.

I take personal pride in all of my images and prints, and actually still feel a loss when one sells at a gallery because I will sincerely miss it.