My introduction to photography came senior year of college in the guise of a temperamental twin-lens camera shooting black-and-white negatives. But even working with a short, manual-focus lens, the first picture I ever imagined, captured and printed was an action shot of a hard play at the plate, the ball frozen an instant from the catcher’s mitt. A year later, after thorough training in the science of artillery, I was a photographer in the U.S. Army. The good news is that I was sent to Hawaii and it was there that I began to fall in love with outdoor photography and the colors of nature. |
|
When I moved to St. George Island in 1980 it was as an outdoor writer; and photography became a work-related necessity. My exploration of the Forgotten Coast was framed by my fishing experiences. Tales documented, to be sure, by photography; in an age of 24-hour photo prints. |
In 2003 I published “Florida’s Forgotten Coast” and that book contained my best photographic experiences from having plunged into the extensive, and expensive, learning curve of shooting color slides, long lenses and soft light. That year I also got my first digital SLR camera and never shot another slide. All of the images on this site are digital captures, taken since that eye-opening day when I first fitted the 6-megapixel miracle to my 500-mm lens. If I came late to the digital age, it was with fervor. Overnight photography became my major endeavor and remains so. |
|
What has been the constant attraction for me through the years, no matter what the science, system or subject, is using the camera to capture an interesting instant of time that is too fast for the eye to record. The successful action shot. |
||
|
In my view, all of nature photography is an action shot. Whether it’s a glory-be-to-God sunrise happening or a fresh water lily unfurling or a yellow warbler flitting leaf to leaf, the interplay of subject, light and background is in constant flux. Anticipation, which comes from knowledge of the subject and the environment, becomes as important to an image as f-stops and shutter speeds. |
|
On these tours I am happy to answer questions about how and why I go about photographing a particular subject. And always we will be looking to read the light and imagine the image. We will adhere to the field principles of the North American Nature Photography Association of which I am a member. Basically: Do the right thing. Respect all wildlife and wild places. |
||
