After having this site up for over a year, I'm finally getting around to writing an artistic vision statement. Not because every other photographer's web site has one, but as an exercise to clarify and define exactly what my style is, and more importantly, why. Over the last few years, I've devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to developing and refining my photographic technique, and have written numerous articles expounding on various technical minutiae. But looking back over my articles and other writings, there's practically nothing about style or aesthetic values or preferences. As I see it, there are two equally important sides to photography: equipment & technique, and creative vision. Neither one is useful without the other. Having creative vision without the tools necessary to adequately bring it to life is one of the greatest possible frustrations. Having tools and technique without creative vision is one of the greatest possible wastes of time and money. Tools and technique are like the train that takes you to Cincinnati; the creative vision is what answers the question: "Why Cincinnati? Why not Chicago or Beijing or Khartoum?"

Why, indeed. This has been one of the most difficult questions for me to answer; much of my creative and stylistic inspiration has bubbled up from within without a clear definition of the why. Like the classic quote about pornography, I may not know how to define it, but I know it when I see it. Two of the photographers that have inspired me the most are Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange. Ansel had a gift for capturing an image of a place that went beyond a mere historical record, it captured a sense of character, a flavor, an essence of the place that one could discover by looking at his prints. Likewise, Dorothea Lange captured images of people that went beyond a mere likeness and enabled the viewer to get a sense of the subjects' personality, their attitude, and their relationship to their surroundings. Those are the ideals to which I aspire, to go beyond a mere matter-of-fact depiction of persons, places and events, to capture the essence of people, places, and events with creativity, flair, and style, and to do so while meeting the highest possible standards of technical excellence. Here some examples of what I consider to be some of my best work, with explanations as to why. I hope you find them interesting reading.

The horse depicted here was 29 years old, living out a comfortable retirement at a local boarding facility. I'd originally gone there to photograph a young girl and her horse, but when I arrived, the girl's mother asked me to photograph this horse as well, due to his advanced age and the fact that the owner didn't have any really nice portraits of him. So I followed him around for a little while, and eventually captured this. I think it speaks for itself.

This image is my all-time favorite individual portrait. I had been asked to photograph various activities at the church I attend, including the Sunday services. This image was captured near the end of the service, as he stepped down from the platform at the end of the sermon to pray. The lights were turned off except for a single spotlight, and I snapped a quick series of frames as he stood silent for a moment before starting to pray. To me, this image expresses the character and personality of the subject; you can look at it and get a glimpse of the character and personality of the man.

This jewel is from a portrait sitting I did for a friend at a local park. He wanted some nice shots of his children that were more than just the cookie-cutter Wal-Mart posed portraits. I had just done some individual shots of them playing on the playground equipment, and my friend wanted to get a few photos of them together. So he had them sit down together on the jungle gym next to each other, but the boy had his thoughts elsewhere; he was focused on the playground equipment instead of me. When he stuck his finger in his nose, I knew I had a wonderful image captured. My friend was a bit ambivalent about this image, ("Why'd you have to take a picture of him picking his nose?") and if the boy ever runs for President, I have no doubt that this image will be prominently featured in his opponent's campaign. But I don't care, I like it anyway. It's funny and genuine, and eloquently captures the personalities of and relationship between brother and sister.