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At just about the end of college I sold my car, took the rest of my school savings and bought a round trip ticket from Seatlle to London, England. I hitchhiked through Great Brittain and Ireland then started taking the Eurail for three months backpacking around the continent.

Before I'd left, my dad had given me his 1950s vintage Nikon camera with a portable light meter. I took I think about 20 rolls of 36 exposures. When I got back I couldn't wait to get them developed. But then when they came back, I found out all but four rolls had slipped on the worn advance bracketing and had over exposed and were ruined. I was heart broken.

So a year or so later, when I got my first teaching job after college, my very first major purchase was a Nikon EM kit with a bag and filters and two lenses. Then about seven years later, married with two kids, my camera got stolen out of our mini-van. With the cost of family, I could never justify buying another. Again something seemed missing in my life.

But then a couple of summers ago I turned fifty and I let it be shamelessly known, that I would not mind having a camera to commemorate the occasion. It is fairly unlike me to ask for anything. So my beautiful wife Beth got me a Canon 40D. And it has again changed my life. It touches my heart and I love especially getting up in the early morning to drive around rural settings looking for that special touch of light or texture of an old barn. It also has allowed me to instead of being the teacher, to be the student, as my U of O "art degree earning" second son Jayce jayceg has taught me and continues to teach me so much about the technical aspects of creating a quality photograph. But even with the technical, I think great photography needs to come from the soul; it is an artistic endeavor that can reroute the path from your head to your heart.


Mt. Hood from Mirror Lake - 1978


Self Portrait at work - 2012