“As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.” — Sam Abell

Style

I am not a technocrat. My approach to photography is very right-brained, more artist than technical. The emotional component of my images is very important to me. I often describe my artwork as being intuitive. Many of the inspirational photos I produce are symbolic, an outward expression of my intrinsic, fundamental being. Many people say to me, “You have a good eye.” I prefer to think that my eye is the pathway to my soul. My insight, my awareness, is derived from my sensual perception of a scene.  How I present this in the form of an image is sometimes an emotionally charged and inexplicable expression by my creative self. This is truly what inspires my inner vision, my intuitive style of capturing those magical, magnificent moments. I try to compose my photographs in a way that they will touch your heart and/or stir your soul.

Background

I was born and raised in northwestern Pennsylvania. This is where my enjoyment of being in the natural world began. Most of my idle time was spent scouting around the wooded outdoors in back of my home. I have spent all but a few years of my life being surrounded by a temperate deciduous forest environment. All but five years of my adult life have been spent living in Vermont. It seems only “natural” that I chose my career in the field of biology. I am a retired educator of thirty years. In the last few years of my teaching career, I began experiencing this driving urge to pursue photographs of nature, especially close-up nature photography.

Training

I do not have any “formal” training in this field; I am a self-taught photographer. I began my pursuit of photography by attending numerous workshops and seminars with notable nature photographers – John Shaw, Gary Braasch, Art Wolfe, Patrick O’Hara, Dewitt Jones, George Lepp, Bill Lea  and Willard Clay among others. Most of my training comes from considerable practice, rigorous reading and utilizing instructional videotapes.

Accomplishments

I am published in three issues of Nature Photographer magazine. The first article (March/April, 1997) is entitled “Creative Seeing,” the second one (August/September, 1998) is entitled “KISS: Keep It Subtly Simple,” and the most recent one, “Symplocarpus foetidus” (Skunk cabbage) (Spring, 2007) All three articles are accompanied by several of my photos. Numerous other regional magazines have used my photographs also, including our state publication, Vermont Life. In addition, they have been used in brochures for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and Mountain Trails Press engagement calendar for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. National Geographic used one of my images in their 2008 wall calendar, desk calendar and engagement book. A book, Another Light, composed by a poet and me featuring his poetry and my photography has been published with a self-publishing company.

My artwork has been selected to produce  major mailing advertisements for fine art/fine craft events here in the northeast. One of the pictures received a first place award for direct mailings of events in Massachusetts.

My photographs have been displayed in local galleries and sold by a unique Vermont artisan’s retail establishment. In the past I exhibited and sold my artwork at  fine art events across the country. I have received numerous awards for my photography at these events.

Affiliations

South Shore Camera Club
Plymouth Digital Photographers Meetup
Plymouth Center for the Arts
New England Camera Club Council