I am an amateur photographer and have been since the age of ten. That was when I attempted a vertical panorama of a flagpole with an old Brownie film camera. It didn't work, but I got my first lesson in perspective. That, too, was when I got the Panoramic-itch. There is, incidentally, no known salve to cure it.

In the mid-70’s (yeah, I’m an oldster[-ish]), I was gifted with an old Kodak 35mm range-finder after years of shooting with Brownie and Instamatic cameras.  This coincided with  the opportunity to take several photography courses in my studies at Brooklyn College.  It was there that I learned the essentials of photography and darkroom work. During that time, I graduated to a Pentax SLR with TTL metering! It was so enticing that my buddy and I set up a darkroom in our storage closet.  I spent endless hours in there experimenting and learning.

In the very early 80’s, he and I conspired to give my wife a 35mm Nikon FG- a camera that could be fully automatic. It was a truly sneaky gift on my part. However, he was even sneakier. Whilst we were conspiring, much to Cheryl's and my mutual surprise that Christmas Eve, he was conspiring with HER to give ME a 35mm Nikon FM2- a fully manual camera that had an in-camera light meter and no other electronics. It was a most entertaining and memorable holiday party!

There followed a half decade of motorcycle travels through New England and Eastern Canada, as well as the Blue Ridge Mountains with much shooting. There was a motorcycle tour of the Alps with a LOT of film.

In 1986, I took a long vacation from "serious" photography to become a daddy-photographer. I used that to improve my candid portraiture skills. During that time, we, as a family, became involved with computing, something I considered to be a critical part of child-rearing. Young son and I spent many hours on the computer together.

I first learned of Photoshop and the potential of a computer darkroom during those years and started to have all of my photos scanned to Kodak Photo CDs as they were being processed- a surprisingly affordable process considering that there were 5 different resolutions per image! I got my first version of Photoshop back then with version 3.0 and haven’t drifted far from it in the ensuing years. I was able to return to the concept of the darkroom without spending lo, those many hours breathing in the chemicals. {I used to so love the smell of fixer in the morning.}

I returned to photographic art around the turn of the century as I entered the digital world. I used a small 3 megapixel Kodak 4800 as a means to learn the pluses and minuses of digital work. It served me well until the Nikon D-100 [which accepted *all* of my old Nikon lenses] became affordable. I used that for many years until my illness struck in December of 2010.

I had the privilege and honor, in August of 2005, to shoot from the photographers pit of the Philadelphia Folk Festival.  I've  been exploring the world of Infrared Photography. I picked up a digital camera that was converted to allow it to "see" the infrared frequencies. Just as in the Macro-Photography this is another new, usually unobserved world. Because that range of light is beyond the human visible range, the results are best shown in Black and White, although there are some exceptions.

I was also inspired to explore the wonders of macro-photography and, with the purchase of a few close up lenses, have discovered a new, usually unobserved world. From the backyard variety to displays at Botanical Gardens, flowers up close are nothing like what the typical observer usually sees. The colors are just as vibrant, perhaps even more so as they dominate the image, but the shapes are almost alien to our experiences. As you may have seen on my Macro Visions page, there are all sorts of other possibilities in close-up photography.

I have long been attracted to multiple exposures, lights, and time-exposures. The standard city lights are fascinating, but so is anything with lights that move, even if I have to make them move.

At the end of 2010, I was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer.  Nine months later, after a round of chemotherapy, some incredibly major surgery, and then another round of chemo, I began a long, slow return to the world of the living. This entailed reacquiring the desire to eat; the ability to perform simple functions like climbing a flight of stairs; and rebuilding my stamina to the point of functionality with the final effect of bringing myself back into life. None of this would have been possible without the incredible support of my wife Cheryl, my son Devin, my mom, and the many friends and family members who were there for me in my time of need. I am now cancer-free since September of 2011!

Along the way, I decided to heal my mind along with my body and took classes in Web Design, Photoshop and Illustrator and some design classes as well.  I am now working with Photoshop CS6. I use it as my laptop darkroom. There are some miraculous tools in there. I am also using Adobe Muse for site creation.

On the occasion of my 63rd birthday some years back, I received a gift from my mom of a Nikon Df camera.  It has some amazing features, but the biggest one is it's ISO rating (ASA) of higher than 12,800! I decided to take a  seminar that was conveniently being offered by The Nikonians Academy about mastering the controls of the camera.  The camera and the discoveries from the course have changed my entire approach to photography and opened up many new possibilities, many of which you’ve seen explored on these pages. I continue to use that as well as my Sony A6300.

I have since taken many on-line courses and taken part in a Long Exposure (LE) workshop, traveled to Aruba, endured another (successful) bout with cancer treatment, went to California, spent almost 2 weeks in Paris, a week in Iceland a month in Hawaii, a week in Lassen National Park in California with the good people of National Parks at Night, and a month in New Zealand that is being highlighted in my Photo Blog!

Life keeps on giving and my camera keeps on taking!