I got into photography with a point and shoot digital camera sometime around 2000. I had no idea about the fundamentals, rules of composition, etc., but I was having a great deal of fun snapping shots. Nature was (and still is) my favorite subject - the more colorful the better! It's said that there are more sunrise/sunset photos than there are people, and maybe it's true, but that doesn't lessen the enjoyment of sitting on a hillside trying to capture those amazing colors.

In 2005 I got my first dSLR, the Nikon D70. This camera opened up a new world to explore and pushed me into learning the fundamentals. Since then I've upgraded through the Nikon system to a D80 and then on to the D700 with each jump opening up new techniques to learn. Now I have super-close macro systems, complex lighting systems, sound triggers for high speed stuff, and a slew of other tricks, but what I still enjoy most is sitting on that hillside waiting for the sun to do its thing.

Other Places to See My Shots

• Kids in the Valley, Adventuring! - I volunteer to shoot the monthly events whether it be hiking, a river cleanup, or a rainy day in the garden.
  


• Panaramio - Using GPS information to 'geotag' the photos you take, you can upload them to Panaramio and see them on the map. Many online services do this these days, but the ones on Panaramio eventually wind up being included in Google Maps.
  


• Stock Photography - Selling pictures to designers to use in magazines, ads, websites, and anywhere else they may need an image but don't want to go through the trouble of having it taken.
  


• Flickr - A great place for sharing images with friends and getting feedback from great photographers.
  


• Older Gallery - Contains a lot of earlier work and some newer, but is not kept up to date like the others.
  

Using a wood lathe, we make custom pens out of various exotic materials from 50,000 year old wood to stone to compressed sunflower seeds. I really enjoy pen making because it's an exercise in precision from beginning to end. There's little chance of hiding a mistake so it's a great feeling to make it all the way through the process ending up with a flawless pen. As one of the most functional forms of art, they make great personalized gifts that people will actually use.

• Gallery of Pens
  


• West River Pens