There has been a bit of speculation (again) on where I am presently located.  Let’s just say that I am where I was and I’m not where I’ve been.  Hope that clears everything up.

When I was a serious part-time and full-time professional, I was always jealous of those other pros (and amateurs) that had the time to travel the world to create their nature photos.  Africa, Asia and on and on.  Still many photographers that I knew who were both existing and wishful pros were jealous of me in that I made images throughout the North American west and many other locations.  They were saddled with shooting around the upper Midwest.  I will bet that those photographers knew others who were jealous of where they traveled because those  photographers were stuck around their home territory or maybe even their own backyard.  If I had traveled the world for my photography I suppose I might have wished to have gone on a space mission, so I could make other worldly nature photographs.  The truth is that sometimes we are where we are and cannot change that fact.

The one thing that some of my friends could never understand about me is how could I go to Arizona and California in the winter and then go to the Pacific Northwest in early autumn, and then come home and photograph a Chipmunk in my backyard or a maple tree in a county park.

Every, and I do mean every subject in the natural world has value.  That common subject can surely make just as powerful and meaningful of an image.  Even if you want to sell your photos, if you look carefully around the photo market you will see more images of common birds, mammals, flowers and insects than you will of the rare ones.  Consumers of prints, calendars, magazines, books and greeting cards love seeing the subjects that they are familiar with.  They may identify a Monarch butterfly with that backyard picnic that Aunt Emma was at in the summer of 1999.

The point to be made is that all subjects and all locations are valuable, and so are you.  Spread your wings out just as far as your life will allow you to, but learn to always treasure where you are and who you are.

God bless