I’ve had a love affair with photography for over 40 years. Ever since signing up for a photography class in high school, it has been an avocation, and applied in many jobs and community service projects.

I feel that good "pictures" are more than quality photographs. A "good photograph" is merely correctly composed, exposed, and printed. A "good picture" is an image that tells a story. It communicates a sense of time, place, and subject that the viewer can translate into many things: beauty, feelings, information, a narrative. Being a perfectionist, I still struggle to shoot a really great picture. I mainly consider myself an advanced learner.

My camera goes along on most trips that my wife, Louise, and I take to various locales around the country. When traveling, we tend to search out well-known scenic areas, as well as tiny off-the-beaten-path views.

However, I don’t always leave home to get a good shot. In fact, some of my favorite spots to visit are right in my own backyard. Of course, my “backyard” includes the newest Miami Valley Metropark, Shiloh Woods, where I find a great variety of wildflowers and animal species to model for me.

This is my Father’s world; The birds their carols raise;
The morning light, the lily white, Declare their maker’s praise.
In the rustling grass I hear him pass; He speaks to me everywhere.

From my favorite hymn: This Is My Father’s World