Reflecting on a (photographic) Life

Recently I have been reflecting on the portion of my life spent as a photographer. Much of that life was spent in the natural world mesmerized with all that I saw, heard and felt. I have been fortunate to have been able to share with you thousands of the images that I was fortunate enough to create while exploring nature.

I have been incredibly lucky to have been published in books, magazines and calendars. Several million viewers have seen those photos and “being published” is the crowning achievement of my life. Still 13 years of displaying images on my own website was the joy of my life. I have shown approximately 5,000 pictures on the Earth Images site over the years. From my perspective this gave me even greater satisfaction as the website was my own personal platform. It was me in every way.

Still with all of this said my recent reflections on my photographic life remind me of just how many images that will never be seen. I have well over 50,000 35mm slides, 6x7cm, 645 (4.5×6 cm) and 4×5 inch transparencies in my older files. This is after editing out a likely million shots made over all of those years. Even with those that have been published by others and those that I showed during 2009/2010 on my site, there still remains nearly 50,000 that will never see the light of day. Entire locations and species of wildlife, plants and flowers go unseen. Very little has been shared from Mt. Rainier WA and the Bighorn Mts. of Wyoming or states like Mississippi and Arkansas. I have shown zero images from Capital Reef N.P. in Utah, the Canadian Rockies and the deserts of northern Mexico. Countless wildlife images made in NWRs across America go unseen. This is the sin of only being “moderately” successful in my lifetime. For those of you out there who like me have been prolific professionals, semi pros or amateur photographers, always treasure your files of both film and digital images and make plans for those images to live on, even after you are gone.

I am currently living a quiet life in seclusion. I no longer create images as I have always needed a greater purpose (than myself) to make photos. I can assure you that I still love and enjoy nature. I watched in awe a few days ago as a beautiful hawk (likely Cooper’s) flew directly at me. There was a time not very long ago that I would have been greatly disturbed by the fact that I produced no images from that experience. We remain who we are throughout our lives but there is always room for change.

For those of you who have been close to me and have shared the art of nature photography with me over the years you are and will always remain very, very special to me.

As I read over the above post I realize how self-indulgent it is. I appreciate your patience.

While this Utah arch is an interesting subject, the picture is about the 3D effect of the warm sandstone and the cool blue sky as they separate and stand out from each other, and also the spotlight effect on the bush.

Skies make for great subjects all by themselves.

Unusual activity and poses by the animals themselves definitely making for compelling images. Don’t be afraid of wildlife that is running, flying or swimming away from the viewer.