About The Artist

Origins

There are things you probably need to know to appreciate my photographic efforts.

I've been a journeyman carpenter, Hollywood production sound engineer, computer programmer, graphic designer, web designer, web client side developer, even a day laborer and working cowboy. Today I'm a landscape, nature, and Western Lifestyle photographer and freelance writer based in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, near the North entrance to Yosemite National Park. My photographic efforts have been featured in numerous venues, from media to print, including magazine and book covers.

Most of my free time was spent outdoors, climbing, mountaineering, hiking, hunting, fishing, and sometimes just being out there where the sky meets the horizon, or down in quiet riparian canyons with the trout, On foot, by vehicle, and by pack horse. I've also extensively traveled most of the American West. I married into a family of cattle ranchers. So nature, landscapes, and images of the Western lifestyle tend to be among my favored subjects.

Growing up in Southern California, I spent a great deal of my free time escaping up Highway 395 through Bishop to the Eastern Sierra. And through all this, I usually carried a camera. But that’s not the whole story.

The story goes more like this. As a younger person, I fell into a pretty good position as a sound recording engineer in the Hollywood Film industry. It’s an easy place to get stuck. Decades of sound stages, locations all over the country, television, feature films, commercials, and movie stars. But I was far more visually inclined, so when I worked right by at least five Academy Award Cinematographers, I tried to learn from them. I worked closely with on-screen personalities who were making a million dollars a week. It’s a fact. I racked up more than 70 top level credits at the Internet Movie Database. Listening for a living. But I was never such a great listener. Just ask my wife. So while I was good at that Hollywood career, as I tried to be with all of them, sound recording was just going to be more of a means to an end.

Directions

So one day I just walked away. Moved to the California Central Coast. Went back to my Western roots. Worked on cattle ranches, and eventually fell into computer programming, web design, and Photoshop. Got hired by some well known ground breakers in the digital age. Learned enough to build the very website you’re now viewing from scratch, using HTML, CSS, and javascript. But it still wasn’t enough. I soon drifted over to the Sierra Nevada range.

There my photo efforts fell into the digital age. Bought that first digital SLR. Then another. And another. And yet another. Four camera bodies in as many years, and ten lenses. I started filling up hard drives, terabyte after terabyte. Chasing the light. But how to pay for all that?

The answer came when I discovered that digital stock media agencies were looking for photographers. It was an open field, but a tough one. So in 2007 I set up High Sierra Scenics as a business container. And it allowed a foot into the door to professional photography. It paid for al that gear, for the trips, the MacBooks, the Wide-gamut monitors, and the software.

Thanks to much appreciated grace, I now live with my wife, our three Quarter Horses, two Australian Cattle dogs, two cats, a flock of chickens, backyard wildlife including deer, rabbits, quail, turkeys, coyotes, and a rattlesnake every now and then. Photography helped to pay for all this, chasing the light with shutter and glass. But enough about me. In fact WAY too much. Just an ordinary fellow looking up to great individuals.

I suppose the real question — the one many are looking to answer — is what can I do for YOU? ?

Stock Agency Contracts With:

Book Covers, Magazine Covers, and PR/Ad Campaigns for:

Images used in Feature Articles, Websites, or Opinion Pieces for: