Let Me Introduce Myself…

I am just a guy with a camera, a “jones” for good coffee, travel and meeting new people.  I currently live in southern California, and have an affinity for the American Southwest with its stark and expansive landscapes.

I was keeping a pen and paper diary while I was in the Greek islands in September 2018, and it struck me that it would be fun to transfer that act of keeping a diary into a photography blog that my family, friends and all of you could enjoy too.

While I am certainly no “Luddite,” being a man in my early 60s I do struggle sometimes with social media and the new technologies that we are all immersed in these days.  I have an extensive library of books, but do find myself, more often than not, reading a new book or an old favorite on my Kindle Fire.  I have accounts on Facebook and Instagram, and post some of my art photography on Photo.net.  So, forgive me if this blog starts out a bit on the primitive side.  Be patient, and with your help I look forward to making this interesting and fun for all of us.

My camera equipment currently includes an Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera body and the superb Zuiko 14-54mm lens.  I have been an Olympus user for well more than ten years now, and simply love the micro-4/3 and 4/3 system and the great glass that Olympus makes for their cameras.  I have a Gitzo Traveler carbon-fiber tripod and ballhead.  I use the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications, primarily Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, Bridge and Photoshop to process the images that I have made.

Finally, as I mentioned above, I am a reader and some quotes that have become very meaningful to me over the years–and seem to apply to my photography–include the following–

“True originality consists not in a new manner, but in a new vision.” (Edith Wharton, “The Writing of Fiction”)

“Why is it that a woman can see from a distance what a man cannot see close?” (Thomas Hardy, “The Return of the Native”)

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” (John Keats)

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” (Ansel Adams)

“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” (Ansel Adams)

I am looking forward to sharing my travels and photography with you, and hope that you can discover some new places to visit and develop a love for the natural spaces that rivals my own.  Feel free to ask me questions about my photographs, the places I visit, and how I use my camera and process the images.  I’d love to hear from you about what you like, or don’t like, about a particular image; or, tell me about the areas and sights that you think I’d like to visit.  I definitely want this to be a conversational and interactive website.

Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you!