After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1972, I began making forays to the mountains soon after. I experienced the Rockies and the Atlantic coast in 1973 and in 1974 saw my first three grizzly bears on my first backpacking trip (first of over 200) at Glacier National Park in 1974.

Growing up in the country in rural Carroll County Illinois, I roamed the Mississippi Bluffs as a boy and in college I began to hatch a plan to emigrate west. I was drawn to mountains and rivers and I have been backpacking and running whitewater and flat rivers since. I have traveled throughout North America from Alaska to Costa Rica and on five other continents. I am now using digital equipment after 30 plus years as a film photographer. I spent the winter of 2010-2011 scanning slides and prints from past decades. I found the older kodachromes did not always scan well, but as I switched to Fujichrome gradually the scanning got better.

Besides photos documenting my many travels and adventures, I have really taken to using my macro lens to photograph flowers, insects and spiders. Now you know spiders are not insects! A noted botonist friend is going to use many of my photos for her soon to be released book on pollinater plants of the Palouse, this rich agricultural landscape I have experienced for a half century now (2025). I was given assignments to find some native flowers I had not photographed by Pam and I took great pleasure hiking different trails within 50 miles of Moscow to get most of the desired shots! I no longer run, but I crawl, camera in hand.