My Story

1982 was the year that I got the photography bug.  My father owned a printing company in Olde City Philadelphia.  Keeping me involved with art and all forms of artistic expression, his workplace provided me with all of the inspiration I needed as an artist.   My Uncle Bob worked there and he was a great influence on my skills that I have today, along with being a great painter and artist, he was a photographer.  Bob taught me exposure and how to work a light meter, all skills and knowledge that the current crop of photographers would have no clue what to do when presented with a manual film camera, without a flash and a roll of Fuji 100.  

I remember walking around the city with my Leica and rolls of black and white film taking street shots tring to hone my skills of being a great street photographer, with that edgey look that only a Leica can provide.  Should have held on to that camera.  I think about when Steve at Classic Camera told me “its a family heirloom”, but I traded it in on a cherry Nikon F2, and the rest is history my Nikon love affair had begun. 

In the years to follow I was adding fast glass and taking sports photos, still going to the city and trying to find great imagery.  I fell into a circle of gentleman that worked for the Inquirer and I just wanted to be them. They owned three or four Nikon F3HP’s, a banged up Domke canvas bag, super fast glass, 50 rolls of film, what a dream.  The cameras were new and already brassed and dented up, every scratch and ding in the viewfinder told a story and maybe a novel.  That led me to having two then three F3HP bodies so I could quick change while I was shooting professional hockey at the time.

Over those two decades I was finding it hard to really make a living at it.  Being on the glass shooting hockey was fun, but even running all the photography and creative material for a national hockey tournament wasn’t paying all the bills for a large family.  So I opeend a design firm that focused on design to print, and being the main creative mind of my company, it was about simplicity in design along with great images.  That would allow me to do a fair share of photography that I was getting top dollar for, and the budget for new gear was endless.  Traded in the F5’s and got some D1 bodies and boom the digital age.  Still Nikon all the way, I went throgh most of them , D2,D3 etc etc.   My kids playing baseball led me back into sports and then shooting for some teams and then to college baseball.  

The Beginning of my wildlife photography was a winter time activity to keep my gear from sitting.

The wildlife bug has been a passion of mine over the last decade. I have a love for nature in its raw state, getting the shot as they say, the time that you need to put in to capture these animals in their vulnerable state.  When you can see the reaction in thier eyes and catch them doing things that most people will never see.  That is what keeps me  going.  Waking up at three a.m. and getting on a freezing cold lake to get the shot, it never gets old.  If you think you got the shot and there is no reason to keep going back, well you will never know what may happen the next day or hour that you are not there.  Nature is awesome and unpredictable,  I am trying to tell my story and feelings through my photographs.   

I hope you enjoy my work, there is a story and a love behind every shot I take, and now you can have a piece of my life quest to capure them on film.