I started with an interest in photography when I was little more than a teenager. My interest started with slambooks that made their way through middle and high school at the end of each year. I kept my slambooks for a few years and looked at the words people wrote. I wished I had pictures of my classmates to accompany those words so I would not forget the faces that matched the names as the years passed. I would take my camera to school and captured a few photos here and there. Most teenagers are either camera shy or big hams, not much in between. I found people wasted my film making silly faces. It was a pet pive. Developing film was costly and to get back almost half of my photos that were a waste burned my you-know-what! I found animals to be more cooperative and photogenic! I figured I'd end up working as a highly paid photographer someday. Somewhere that dream fell by the wayside, along with my childhood dream of being a professional ice skater. The first time I fell on the ice and ended up with a black eye, I rethought all the hard work it was going to take to pursue the ice skater dream. Photography was a great deal less physically exasperating.

Even if I did not end up as a highly paid photographer I never lost my love of capturing nature.