ON LOCATION

In the 70's, I fancied myself an artist and a photographer.  I saved and purchased a 35mm SLR Minolta and taught myself how to develop film and make prints in my apartment bathroom/darkroom.  I was very motivated but not particularly talented. I kept remembering that Einstein said that he had no special talent, just passionate curiosity...so i tried to fly on my curiosity...I fooled myself into thinking that would work until i saw an Ansel Adams photograph in the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...I went home and destroyed all of my negatives and prints.  I started to read about Ansel's zone system and tried to apply the system to my work..but my interest was in a more photojournalistic direction and not Ansel's beautiful fine art landscape photography.  So I drove from Tampa to Ansel's home in Carmel, California and introduced myself.  This was before Ansel Adams was so well known and famous.  He took time with me and changed my life.  I returned to Carmel and Yosemite to learn the craft of photography from Ansel and many of his fellow photographers...Morley Baer, Phillip Hyde, Roger Minick, Wynn Bullock, Brett Weston, Willard Van Dyke, and many others.  Ansel and Morley wrote me letters of reference that i used to get accepted into a Master's of Fine Arts program.  Here i am on location shooting an ad campaign that helped finance my MFA....