About

After initially being raised by wolves, my first human father was an ad man/photographer. Since leaving the cave in the woods as a small pup, I do not remember a time when I didn’t own a camera.

In 1997, I joined the family ad agency and became the de facto photography assistant (a glamorous task, indeed!). Photography was – at that time – a mild diversion, and no more. However, when my father passed away in 2007 and the company’s photography needs fell squarely on my shoulders, I decided that I needed to hone my skills a bit more. I began perusing some dusty old Dean Collins material that my father had laying around the office since the mid 1980’s.

In early 2008, I was diagnosed with cancer – fortunately, an easily treated cancer … but cancer none-the-less. Lacking the energy to do anything more strenuous, I read. And read. And read some more. Within a few weeks, I had fully consumed the Collins material … a few months later and the local library’s resources had been properly devoured … so I started scouring the internet for more.

Enter David Hobby. Mmmmm “strobist” … good

By the time my health was fairly well restored, I had managed to digest every tidbit and morsel the Strobist had to offer. And along the way, I began following Joe McNally, Damien Franco, Yuri Acurs and several other photography guru dudes on the interwebs.

Along the way, I discovered macro photography – taking pictures of really tiny stuff. I am endlessly amazed at the intricacy of detail in insects, arachnids and other little creepy crawly things that I would formerly have squished without a second thought. I still squish ‘em, but I think about it more now

In early 2009, I began submitting my work to several microstock photo agencies. Within 4-5 months, 10 of the world’s top agencies decided to add my work to their catalogs. So I’m kinda pumped about that.

As far as gear goes, I shoot w/ a Canon EOS 10D (circa 2003). It’s nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done (unless you need low noise at high ISO, or anything over 6.3 megapixels … then I’m S.O.L.).

I get a kick out of it whenever somebody sees one of my photos and says something like, “Wow, you must have a nice camera.”

I’ve never actually said it, but someday I’ll probably just blurt out, “Yeah … I bought it at the same store where Eric Clapton buys all his guitars.”

For lenses, I’ve got 3: Canon 28-105 f/3.5-4.0 (my main lens), Tamron 17-55 f/2.8-3.5 and a Sigma 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 (it’s slow, dark, noisy, grainy, heavy and the autofocus stinks … but it stretches out to 300 mm, so I deal w/ it).

For lighting, I’ve got 3 small strobes: 1 Vivitar 273 (from the Nixon administration) and 2 ProMaster models which have been long-since discontinued. In the studio, I’ve got 4 White Lightnings (3 that work!), a couple of ancient Multiblitzes and some amazingly dangerous hot lights that my father bought for video, but I like to keep them around because the inherent fire hazard adds a much needed element of risk into my life.

Oh, and I have TWO fire extinguishers in the studio, too (just in case my insurance agent reads this).

For the macro work, I shoot just about everything with the 28-105. I’ve got a set of Kenko extension tubes (12mm, 24mm & 36mm). I also have a very old 50mm lens that I can mount in reverse in front of my 28-105 lens. Combined with the extension tubes, this gets me to near-microscopic range. I’ll probably put together a blog post about my macro adventures some day soon. I used to use some diopter filters (li’l magnifying glasses that screw onto the lens), but the reversible lens has made them obsolete … so if you know anybody that wants to buy some used diopters, lemme know!