From the Heart

Walking around to today I felt the heat of the sun on my brow. Felt like the first time in a year, haha. Spring is coming. Another year of renewal and birth, of fresh ideas and fresh starts. I'm about to embark on a big trip down to New Orleans, a first for me. While I've been many places in the last few years, the Big Easy isn't one of them.

I'm a country boy. I grew up in the forest and generally my idea of a good time is embarking on a journey to places in the wild.  Yellowstone was a great adventure in 2008.  The last few years though, I've been observing the urban jungle, or at least the suburban jungle.

The scenes are completely different, but the feel is somewhat of the same. It's still an exploration of something unknown for me. The nature feels a bit contrived, but it's still there.

There's even something else that is fun to capture in cities; people.

They give an added dimension to the photos that would otherwise be missing. I love working them into nature scenes as well when possible.

I like people. They're fun to work with. Each and everyone of them responds differently to the camera.  For the last few years, I've studied Henri Cartier Bresson, Paul Strand, Albert Eisenstaedt, André Kertész, Margret Bourke-White and a personal favorite Galen Rowell. It's a similar process that I've gone through in Jazz. You listen to others so that you can build your own vocabulary. And that's what I've been doing with my photography; building a language so that I can express myself. Express my views of the world.

I speak with my photos so I can capture a moment; I want people to see what things look like from my point of view and hopefully take advantage of the things around them. There is power in the everyday, in the normal as long as we take the time to look for it.

That's all for now folks, take care.