About Me

When I was a child, I loved to draw and paint and color. However, in my early 20s, I started to study art “seriously” and focused intensely on creating “cool,” perfect paintings and drawings. As a result, by my mid-20s, my joy for creating visual art evaporated. I gave up on being “artistic” but remained enthralled by the visual arts, especially TV, film, and photography.

Eventually, I tried photography in my mid-20s and early 40s. Each time, I bought a very cheap, mail-order catalogue SLR. Both times I took lots of pictures but never bothered to learn about photography. The first time I tried photography, during the mid-70s, I was heavily influenced by then popular celebrity portrait and fashion photographers whose images I thought I could simply imitate. You know, I thought with a “nice” SLR, anyone can make glamorous, glitzy, even avant-garde photos. In the early 90s, I figured I could make cool photographs of anything I found interesting. You know, I thought, with a “nice” SLR, anyone can make photos just like the ones featured in the major magazines. Actually, the only thing I learned about photography both times was that I was just no good at it. The photos from both my previous attempts at photography stunk (OK, my photos both sucked and blew), so both times I got bored with photography and gave it up.

Never thought about doing photography again. Ever.

In 2001, at the age of 47, I entered a PhD program in Cultural Studies at UC Davis. A great portion of my studies and research delved into analysis of visual media, especially film and video. During my studies and brief time spent teaching, I built an academic foundation of visual analysis that enhanced and strengthened my innate talent to examine and describe what I see when I contemplate images.

Then, around 2010, in my mid-50s, I bought a Blackberry Curve and started to take pictures with it, wondering if I could learn to create some solid photos with it. I was enjoying the photography of it but (again) my photos sucked. However, in 2012, a good friend and colleague was selling his 5 year old, entry level “nice” DSLR with its kit lens. I bought it, and while learning to use what I thought of as a “real camera,” I quickly found that I loved capturing images because my academic knowledge and ability to analyze visual arts influenced my creative process. In effect, based on my studies, I started to think about what I was creating, having conversations with not only the subject matter I was photographing but also later on, with my own images during post processing. And those conversations with my subject matter and my photos led to conversations with other photographers and with photography related content. Quite “naturally,” my love of research and learning merged with my love for creating visual art, and I am still loving learning about photography while also doing it.

Now, tapping into my photographic creative impulses is an ongoing conversation I still enjoy. I relish my conversations with the places, people, and things I photograph; with the image files I edit and enhance (and the many I dump because they tell me to); with my equipment itself; with the photography and visual art content I study; and with the photographers who are my friends and mentors whose art and personalities nourish my desire to continue all these conversations and to keep exploring our beloved art form, photography.

And bonus: While I am doing all this, I also get to have lots of fun.