Like many photographers (Ansel Adams, is a notable one) my first passion was playing music. But later in my musical career I also became involved with 35 mm film photography processed in my home darkroom. Unfortunately, I tried to force my love of photography into a quick career. After a couple of years, I became disillusioned with the tedium of working in the darkroom and taking jobs that I didn’t enjoy (weddings, photo-restoration, for example); so when my camera was stolen I took a sabbatical from photography and focused instead on completing my university education and pursued careers in environmental sciences and clinical research.
A few years ago I rediscovered my passion for photography during a vacation to New Orleans. Digital SLR’s had finally broken through the consumer price barrier, so my wife and I took a taxi from New Orleans to the nearest Best Buy and purchased a Canon EOS 20D digital camera. New Orleans was a magical place to photograph. And the advent of digital photography as well as an internet full of instructional resources has helped me to advance my skills much quicker than the darkroom full of environmentally unfriendly chemicals during the pre-internet years could have provided.
I am very fortunate that I have a full-time career that supports me while I develop my photography skills and vision. My work in clinical research sometimes takes me to international destinations and I frequently take an extra couple of days on location to just explore and photograph. Since I don’t have the pressures of supporting myself with photography, I have the luxury of concentrating on what interests me, like travel, street, and nature photography. This has helped me sustain my passion for photography.
My primary goal is to produce works that I connect with emotionally. If I can maintain this honest approach, I am hopeful that others will make a similar emotional connection to my work. Though it may not be the same connection, I consider that a success.