Even as a child I was always fascinated by everything nature had to offer.  I loved camping and I lived to explore.  I would get a lump in my throat at the sight of a spectacular landscape.  Even if the scape was in a magazine or a John Wayne movie.  Any wild mammal and every large bird got my youthful adrenalin flowing.  I was one kid who could appreciate nature.  It couldn’t get any better than this.

In the middle of my (adult) photographic life, I made the decision to make Ma Nature my “partner”.  My life and my view of nature was changed forever.

No matter how many times I camped, hiked, and appreciated nature, she was still just a thing of beauty that I admired.  When via my camera, I began to create my vision of nature and share it with the world, I started an intimate relationship that I now realize,  would never allow me to return to where I once was.  Nothing could ever again equal the feeling of having nature as a teammate.  I was a part of it all.  Not just an observer.  Other people enjoyed nature through my eyes, instead of the other way around. I know that nothing I can do from here on, will replace what I have already done.  I am a spectator except for rare occasions.  I will be forever grateful to “my partner’ for all of those special years that we were a team.

The five pictures below are just that…..five pictures.  They are chosen for no particular reason except that are a part of who I am and who I have been, for many years.  They are born of a relationship with nature.  You might say we are “partners”.

Swimming In Dreamland

Self Portrait

An Afternoon With Mom

& Dad

Stripes

Old Hymn

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up…
To more than I can be.