ABOUT THE ARTIST I got my first camera when I was in high school. It was a Voightlander 35mm, with a flip down bellows lens. It had a great lens and took good pictures… unfortunately I didn’t take good pictures. I had a lot to learn. So over the years I wasted a lot of film, most of it under or over exposed. I bought a light meter. That solved many of the exposure issues, but still my pictures didn’t have that great look that I had seen from other photographers. That led to a darkroom. There I had another huge learning experience, and it wasn’t until a friend of a friend showed me how to get the most out of a shot in the developing tray that I finally began to be satisfied with my pictures. Of course I hadn’t even thought of things like composition, artistic quality and the things that make good pictures great pictures. In fact that didn’t happen for almost 40 years. Sure, I had cameras all throughout my life, but they were mostly for picture taking – kids, trips, parties, etc. I hadn’t considered making artistic images that people would buy until 3 things came into confluence in my life. The first was retirement. That gave me the time to seek out good shots. The second was the digital camera revolution. I was turned on immediately by the idea that I could now manipulate my pictures in a computer, rather than a dark room (my profession as a director/producer had given me a basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop which I quickly put to work on my photos.) The third thing was moving to Seabrook Island, SC, which opened my eyes to the beauty of the lowcountry: the marshes, the wildlife, the sunrises and the sunsets. It all came together for me. And, the fact that I could sell my work for a worthwhile charity, the Hospice of Charleston, made me want to show and sell as much as possible. Of course I still want to be retired, but photography has given me a purpose and an outlet for my creative juices. When someone buys a picture, the check is made out to Hospice of Charleston. That money is passed directly to Hospice along with an invoice for my expenses for which they reimburse me. I don’t loose money, they gain money and the buyer gets a tax deduction and a nice picture. I’m happy.