Military Service: Army
Service Status: Veteran
State: VA
About the Artist:
My dad gave me my first camera—a used Argus C3 rangefinder camera with manual controls—when I was in junior high school. I still remember it fondly. From there, I graduated to a Canon FTb single lens reflex (SLR) camera I purchased while stationed in Germany with the US Army. I have a second version of that camera that I still shoot with on occasion; I even loaned it to a neighbor for a high school photography class. In the late 1990s I bought my first digital camera, a Vivitar Point and Shoot, and then a Canon Point and Shoot. Missing the versatility of my SLR, I moved up to a Canon 40D and then to a Canon 6D. Today, I use a Canon R6. I consider myself a landscape photographer, but I also do nature and travel photography.
Two of my favorite things to photograph are stone angels and lighthouses. Stone angels and other cemetery memorials make for captivating photographs because I think of them not just as grave markers but as pieces of art in an outdoor art museum. To me, stone angels are the apex of cemetery monuments because an angel represents a messenger between Heaven and Earth. Lighthouses are equally fascinating to me. They make for interesting photographic subjects because of what they represent. These beacons of light protect mariners by directing them away from danger and toward calmer waters.
I grew up in Michigan and then enlisted in the Army. I served in Germany, Washington, Georgia, and Virginia. I currently live in Virginia just outside of Washington, DC. I recently retired and am looking forward to spending more time behind the camera.