Q & A

Q:Have you been taking photographs all your life?
A: Nope. Just since 1987.

Q: What type of camera do you use?
A: Canon digital SLRs.

Q: Fixed focal length lenses or zooms?
A: The greatest percentage of my images were shot with zooms. Their quality these days is superb. Their versatility in the field is unquestionable.

Q: What film?
A: When shooting film, Fujichrome Velvia was my mainstay. I used it whenever shooting a static subject (rated at 40 ISO). When photographing wildlife, I usually used Fujichrome 100. Now that I shoot digital, I work with the lowest ISO rating a given situation allows. (Though I love the fact that I can now get superb results at 400 ISO.)

Q: Do you print from the slides, or do you use internegatives?
A: For years I printed nearly everything directly from slides
(Type R). There have been a handful of images for which I've used internegatives. These were images where due to contrast, too much had to be sacrificed in printing Type R. For about 8 years now, I've foregone wet printing, though.

Q: What about digital output of your work?
A: I am really excited about this! I'm a low-tech person. But images digitally output onto photographic paper are something else! Initially, this was accomplished by scanning the original slide and creating a digital file from which to print. This enabled me to accurately render what I actually saw--after years of torturous compromise. The sharpness, detail and range of tonality of these prints is so far superior to that of standard custom enlargements.For I no longer need to sacrifice shadow detail in order to maintain the highlights. Fresh snow on fallen aspen leaves, amidst shaded pine cones-- no problem.

For about eight years now, everything I have exhibited has been printed digitally. Initially, they were LightJet prints. Now I work with an Epson 7600; whose pigmented inks are as archival as were Cibachromes. And the quality is unsurpassed. I have chosen to go this route because it enables me to show images which very much approximate not just what I have on film-- but what my eyes actually saw. There is such an enormous difference in print quality that I have been left no choice but to embrace it. In doing so, I am elated!

Q: Why are only some of your images limited editions?
A: The main reason is the substantially lower price at which I can sell open edition photographs to my customers. Most of my editions being limited to 49 dictates that they must be sold at a higher price. Generally, I will have three different sizes of any limited edition photograph. Many artists' limited editions number 250 to in excess of 1000. I consider this farcical. When I sell the thousandth copy of any of my images, I will bronze it and build an altar to honor it.

Q: Do you have a gallery?
A: My gallery is a mobile one, as I present my work at nearly 30 art shows a year. Now, with this web site, I also have an electronic gallery.

Q: Where is your favorite place to take photographs?
A: Planet Earth.