By trade, I am a union carpenter. For fifteen years I have built large structural concrete buildings from theaters to hi-rises. My career is incredibly rewarding. Although, besides my amazing wife and three gorgeous children, photography has been my greatest passion for nearly twenty years

Harkening to to the time of bulk rolling Tmax 100 and resembling Golum because of my darkroom obsession, I lived and breathed getting the shot. Several of my community college instructors had been significantly published, traveled in the company of Giants, and had won international competitions; all of whom took great pleasure in teaching basic to advanced photography. A true blessing for a sixteen year old wannabe.

After about four years of love and obsession I was able to maintain a self sustaining hobby that afforded me pro nikon gear-- until it was stolen. After that I was unable to justify buying $8000 in gear in 1994 at the age of twenty; living on my own, paying my own way.

Fast forward fifteen years, married to an amazing, artistic wife, we began to reinvest in gear. Starting a family is good insentive. It takes a little longer, with a lot of compromise (sb 600 and kids shoes or sb 900 and no shoes?) You get the picture.

The digital transition from film has been a delight. Although, post processing still seems a bit overwhelming, the in-expense of digital processing and storage is motivating to rediscovering skills and developing new ones.

In April of '09, Kaiser injured my back and it has made it almost impossible to make new photos. I have fallen in love with strobism and HDR and as recovery continues, I plan on making up for lost time.

Mostly, I am grateful to my family and all those who share and support in this art.

That being said, I truly encourage feedback(comments) on my work. In the short time I have participated with the Flickr community, to the best of my abilty, have taken time to write comments or Flickrmail to photographers of all levels, styles, and content. With the principle in my heart, anyone can say "Good..." or "Bad..", but putting the effort to "comment" on the actual content of the photo adds to the mutualness of the community experience. Better, one earnest, thought out explanation, than 50 " Great shot, nice lighting". Not looking to win any popularity contest; my creativity is not based on other's opinions-- as a visual artist-- I would be liing if I said it did not influence my creative considerations.

Blessings to all. Happy shooting.

Tym a.k.a. K.O.P