When I was younger in school, I worked in a camera shop. This is where my love for cameras got started. Back then, Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid's were the hot items. Single Lens Reflex cameras where just starting to get popular. My first 35m camera was an Minolta SRT 100. It was a great camera. I carried my Minolta everywhere I went. To the beach in Galveston to family get together, everywhere. Couple years later, I upgraded to the SRT101. I felt the need to step up and get serious about my photography habit. I bought a Bessler Enlarger and start printing pictures from a rolling drum. Looking back now, that was a lot of trouble to produce enlargements.

I later realized to produce good enlargements, good large negative made it a lot easier. I took the leap from 35mm to 6x7 120 format. A large negative captures a lot of good data. I bought a used Mamiya RB67 Pro S. I soon realized, this 9 pound camera was a beast to do landscape with. Granted it produced some good quality prints, very hard to use every day out in the boonies. So, I decided both 35mm and 6x7 was a great combination.

I was raised and went to school in the Houston area. But my love was in the Rocky Mountains. I was single in 1980 and moved to Loveland, Colorado. I traveled a lot with work (engineering business) in the next 10 years to Wyoming, Alaska, and Nevada. Between traveling and getting married and raising my son, I backed off on the photography and did have the time to do much with it.

In 1990, work in the Denver area was bad for engineering. I moved backed to Houston and went back to work. Shortly thereafter, I realized, I could not live without my mountains I love so much. We started taking vacations several times a year going back to Colorado. This rekindled my photography bug and by then, I was financially able to buy some good digital equipment.

Around 1998, I was faced with the decision to go Nikon or Canon. Both are top notch quality and more personal preference than quality. I first bought a Nikon Coolpix and liked it. It did not have removable lens so decided to upgrade again. This time I bought a Canon Rebel XT. I knew I wanted good lens so I bought the 24-70mm 2.8L and also 70-200 2.8L. These lenses produced some great quality in sharpness and durability in the field. I eventually upgraded to a Canon 5D MkIII body. I am very happy with this combination. Even with all this quality, taking good pictures is more the guy behind the viewfinder than anything else. A good eye for subject matter and light combination is what makes the picture. I strive to become better each time I go out. Hopefully someday I will become as good as some of the great photographers that are doing this for a living. Since mine is for my hobby, I can stand all the help I get learning every day and making me a better photographer…

In having all this great camera gear, I also realized that printing good quality enlargements, you need a good printer. I invested in a Canon IPF 5100. I loved this printer but was limited to 17" wide format. So last year I bought a Canon IPF8300 44" printer. This allows me to print some very large prints. I really like printing the canvas prints and the Canon shines on them. The canvas really pops out with the larger size.

As my pictures in the gallery reflect, I love the fall in the mountains. We go every year in the fall for sure. We have a toy hauler with our Can Am ATV's. These allow us to get to spots that would take lots of time and effort to hike to in the mountains. As the wife and I get older, we find the ATV's a great source of transportation where I can enjoy and capture all of nature's beauty. We bought property right outside Pagosa Springs, Colorado with hopes of retiring there in about 4-5 years. This would put me where I want to be in my later years. Catching the right light in the right place…….