Eventually, I discovered the writings of Edward Abbey, which truly developed my perspective and motivations regarding conservation and wilderness. Ed always said that “it isn’t wilderness unless there are wild animals that can kill you”. In 1997, I accidentally found out that I had a natural talent for photography and composition on a solo trip through Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. This revelation inspired me to begin teaching myself about cameras and photography techniques from various books by some of the landscape masters of our time. Having no formal training, I have learned and am still learning from the writings and images of Galen Rowell, Ansel Adams, David Muench, Art Wolfe, and Charles Campbell. I burned up a lot of film for a few years before I “crossed over” to having the capacity to shoot “professional level” images, so all of the work that you see on the site has been shot since 2001.

My love for thoroughbreds and the racing industry was instilled in me as a very young child by going to Churchill Downs with my Dad. He has taught my brother and I the finer nuances of handicapping and observing racehorses throughout our lives. This love of the industry and my Louisville location brought me to the equine photography business in 2003. I’ve shot the Kentucky Derby for the last 5 years and have sold work to industry heavyweights including Nick Zito, Pat & Roy Chapman, John Servis, Frank Brothers, Mary Lou Whitney, and Bob Baffert. I specialize in the Triple Crown races, the Breeder’s Cup, and the horse farms as nature images are still my main interest.

My primary mission as a photographer is to ultimately inspire the viewer to visit and experience the multitude of environs that the natural world offers us. Once we are exposed to these vivid “real life” moments in nature, we truly understand and value that world and thus wish to conserve it for future generations. This is the same concept that the Sierra Club employs by guiding people on wilderness adventures. If you’ve never been there, why would you care about saving it?

My main objective when previsualizing and composing an image is always to actually involve the viewer in that particular scene. I want you to imagine what it must feel like to actually stand there for that moment in time. I often emphasize foreground elements in detail so that the viewer’s mind subconsciously understands what lies in the distance of these massive landscapes. Most of these grandiose destinations are incomprehensible even if you’re there so I try to use my camera as a sort of translator. I’ve often been asked, “What’s it like to be there?” I’ve never been able to properly respond to that one but I hope that I’m getting closer to answering that one through my images.

Over the years, I’ve learned that we are constantly bypassing the most beautiful moments that are available to us on any given day without ever even recognizing them. Many of my images focus on this inherent human weakness by featuring the finite details of larger scenes. I want to encourage the viewer to pay more attention to their surroundings at all times as life’s most fulfilling rewards are always in the details. I specialize in color photography because I’ve found that the optimal way to impact the viewer’s emotional senses is to show them the vivid hues that only seem to exist in the natural world. I try to convey this in my images by shooting strictly subjects that are illuminated in perfect light. Most of my images are brief moments in time that didn’t appear that way for more than a single minute. I don’t “photoshop” any of my work because I’m attempting to show you what was actually there. Sometimes I can’t believe it was real once I actually look at the developed slide.

By properly understanding how cameras think and operate, your goals can be achieved on various brands and types of equipment. My gear of choice includes Pentax ZX-5N 35mm camera bodies, Sigma lenses ranging in focal lengths from 17mm to 400mm, Bogen Manfrotto tripods, and Lowepro camera bags. I shoot exclusively on Fujichrome Velvia slide film for maximum color saturation. I then scan my slides on the Nikon Supercoolscan 4000 at a 4000dpi setting which renders a 50MB image to print highly detailed large format prints. I also shoot some projects and horse races digitally with a Pentax K-10D and my same Sigma lenses. This gives me the capability to instantly feed images to deadline-oriented publications.