about the photographer

I'm a life-long photographer, starting at eight with a Kodak Brownie shooting summer vacations. I currently use a Nikon D200 for most of my landscape work and a Nikon D100 for my spherical panoramas. Sometimes I use a Canon S400 for those occasions where discretion is required.

Inspiration and influence comes from my father Leo, a master photographer. Other influences are Elliot Porter, Minor White, Art Wolfe, and Irving Penn. Recently I met Barry Perlus of Cornell University who introduced me to the world of spherical photography, which I have adopted and expanded upon. These are best seen in a planetarium, but lacking that, you can enjoy Quicktime VR, "little planet" and hyperbolic projections.

I spent over 25 years developing and deploying sophisticated imaging systems for use in engineering design and began playing with digital images in the late 1970s when raster images replaced vector images. As a software developer, I can enhance images in specialized ways, or use the latest software products to improve digital photographs.

I believe it's the quality of an image's foreground and lighting which makes a good photograph possible, although there are many famous exceptions.

I like to shoot doors and windows because there is a certain mystery and sense of embarkation with these portals to other spaces. These shots are often character statements; sometimes they are questions about where they lead; and sometimes they are merely beautiful to behold.

Landscapes tend toward the serene for me. I seek out places where quiet and relaxation prevail over all else.

Photographing plants is an opportunity to commemorate the shapes, textures and color of nature on an intimate level, a kind of more focused landscape.

Travel photography exposes the designs of men and the variety of nature across the planet. Differences and similarities are juxtaposed as we look at ourselves in other places doing other things.

Images of birds and animals offer insight to life as a whole. Life, death, reproduction, eating and sleeping are caught in an instant.

Sometimes images are just about shapes and colors or people doing interesting things. I have always been drawn to geometric patterns in contrast or color, and visual layers and reflections make intriguing photographs.