In my sophomore year of high school I was given a SLR camera for Christmas. I started taking photo classes and running around school shooting everything on Kodak Tri-X and processing and printing the ones that were the right focus and exposure. This continued in Orange Coast College with more classes, but knew I needed more…Brooks Institute. With no way to pay for such a prestigious school, I took a stint in the air force. I was stationed in Podunk learning the technicalities of ground based communication repair, but still kept taking pictures. When I completed my commission, it was straight to Brooks. At Brooks I was introduced to the 4X5 (large format) camera. Putting that negative in the enlarger and making prints was a revelation: I could actually see and control the details. After graduating   I moved to Los Angeles where I knocked on doors with portfolio in hand.

I have always loved cars and I discovered that shooting them was really fun. At the same time, I started working with truly large format photography, 8X10.. Having a sheet of 8X10 film come back from the lab and placed on the lightbox with all the detail and color was the ultimate for me. Than came digital, the geek in me fully embraced digital, I mean who wouldn’t get thrilled by all that control over every detail of the photograph…sharpness, contrast…everything. I count myself very fortunate to be able to know both media of the photographic world. I for one will truly miss the smell of Detol and Fixer in the morning. I also miss Saturday morning cartoons.