Carrying a camera into the outdoors is something I’ve done since I was in high school, but those cameras were the kind that never returned after you dropped them off at the one-hour photo shop. While in college, I received a pair of Olympus OM-2s’s from my grandfather, and I began to explore the tricky world of SLR’s. I remember excitedly showing a friend how I could make the shutter stay open for over a second, so needless to say there was a steep learning curve.
Today, though I travel occasionally, I specialize in photographing my hometown of Juneau, Alaska. Juneau is in the middle of the Tongass National Forest, and it boasts a spectacular variety of natural beauty. Well over half of my time spent recording new photos is directed toward Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier. Even if I don’t have the many years of experience in photography that some do, I have hundreds of hours more experience in creating glacial imagery than most.
When it comes to the WHY behind my photography, I’ve become increasingly less able to separate my motivation for taking pictures from my spiritual and religious beliefs. I have a goal for my photos that they would increase people understanding of Him who created all the world. It might be a total turn-off for some viewers, but my desire is to create photographs of natural scenes that show us something about God.
