I live in the southeastern United States, just outside of Atlanta Georgia in a town called Gainesville,Georgia. I received my undergraduate degree in photography from Virginia Intermont College in Bristol Virginia in 1988.
For a brief period I work for The National Geographic Society in Washington DC, soon after leaving National Geographic, I went to work just outside of New York City as a commercial photographer. In 1990 I returned to the Washington DC area where I continued to work as a commercial photographer, shooting catalog work, sports photography and just about anything else that we could fit into the studio, as fate would have it, I ended up doing some commercial work for National Geographic as well.
Now keep in mind, all of this was prior to the onset of digital photography and the Internet was very much in its infancy. When photography started going digital, and the darkroom and everything that we knew as photographers was turning into something very foreign and different, I made a decision to get out of photography. I didn't pick up a camera, take one picture or do anything related to photography for over 10 years.
In 1994 I began studying to be a dentist at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry. I graduated in 1998, with my doctorate and General Dentistry. A couple years after beginning my first practice I realize that something was missing. Though I enjoyed being a dentist, my creative side was suffering from lack of nutrition. I told myself, that I needed to get a hobby. So I set out looking, I thought about everything but photography... playing the guitar, learning a foreign language, I ran the entire gamut of hobbies in my mind. Then it hit me, make photography your hobby! This may seem like a no-brainer to you, but it was not for me. Because prior to this moment I had always viewed photography as a profession and a means to make a living. That's not to say it wasn't fun, but it had a certain element of work to it. Now, I had to deal with the complete paradigm shift in that photography was going to be just for fun.
Almost immediately I discovered the digital photography, Photoshop and all that is included in modern-day image making was a wonderful experience. Photography now is my mental salvation, and a day does not go by and I'm not involved in something dealing with photography. If I was asked now to make a choice between dentistry and photography, the next time you saw me I'd have a camera in my hand. I practice dentistry three days a week, and the rest of my energies and creative outlets are focused on image making. All of my travel is now focused on photography, and it's rare to see me without a camera. I can honestly say that photography has saved my life. One of the great things about image making, his long after we're gone are images will still exists to prove his record of our existence, our travels and our vision. You photographers know exactly what I'm talking about, because we are a special breed steeped deep and creativity and thought.
When I was a photographer the first time around, I shot a great deal of medium format, 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 work. All I can say is thank God for digital photography, because lugging all that crap around was a big hassle.
I now shoot with a Nikon D3 and an assortment of lenses. I also use of Fuji S5 Pro, which is nothing more than a beefed up Nikon D300. In my editing, I use Photoshop CS4 and various other third-party software's. As far as my computing, I'm pretty certain I drank all the brainwashing Kool-Aid that the Apple computer company would have one drink ... all my creative process, both film and still are generated on some sort of Apple product.
- JoinedJuly 2007
- OccupationDentist Photographer Filmmaker
- Hometown Lexington Kentucky
- CountryUnited States
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