ARTIST'S MESSAGE

Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you will have an opportunity to visit my gallery, located in the Coyote Gulch Art Village, at Kayenta, in Ivins, Utah. Kayenta is located approximately eight miles west of St. George, Utah.

My portfolios consist of both fine art and documentary images. Any of these images may be purchased as prints or as digital files, licensed for stock usage in brochures, catalogs or editorial publication. Contact me personally for more information.

Visitors to Earth & Light Gallery often ask what types of cameras I use and why my images are so sharp and colorful. The reality is that the actual equipment is less important than being at a given location when Mother Nature (weather, light and locale) comes together to create a striking image and often, one that only just lasts for moments. That said, I prefer to capture large, epic scenes. Panoramic images are among my favorites and have been ever since as a child, I watched my first Cinemascope widescreen film in 1955.


MY CAMERA EQUIPMENT

I own and use a number of formats including large and medium format film systems by Pentax, Horseman, Wisner and Graflex. When I travel out of the country I shoot exclusively digitally. It has become less practical in this post 9/11 world to travel with large amounts of photographic equipment and most foreign airlines place weight restrictions on the amount of carry-on allowed. When I photograph in the USA with film, it is primarily with my Pentax 645 system or one of my large format systems, with Schneider or Fujinon lenses. My digital SLRs and lenses are by Canon. Presently, I am now using a 5D mkII and an XSi . All of the images in my South American portfolios were captured with a Canon 5D mkII, Canon XSi with Canon L Series Lenses or a SONY a900 with Zeiss lenses. I frequently shoot multiple, overlapping frames of a scene with my digital cameras, and use software to create a composite scene with a file size large enough to match the resolution and sharpness of medium format film, and sometimes rival large format film.

When I shoot digitally, I always shoot in the RAW format, allowing extremely accurate 'tuning' of the final image. I also use HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing for some scenes. HDR processing requires shooting multiple frames of the same scene with varying exposures and then combining the best elements of each exposure to expand the dynamic range of the photograph to more closely approximate that visualized by the human eye and brain.


FILM SELECTION

Another question frequently raised by visitors to my gallery is "How do you get such color?" I start by shooting in the early morning at or near sunrise, or in the evening at or near sunset, when sunlight is the richest and most golden. And I shoot almost exclusively with three film stocks: Fuji Velvia 50 - probably the most popular film in the world among nature and landscape film photographers and my personal favorite, along with Fuji Provia 100/100F. If the shooting situation requires higher film speed, I use Provia 100F and push it one stop. Both are transparency (slide) films.

My film is processed at A&I Labs in Hollywood - in my opinion, one of the very best film processing labs in the country. Once my film is returned, I inspect it and select the images I feel to be worthy for inclusion in my gallery or on this website. I scan my film using an Imacon film scanner. Minor color corrections, dust spec removal and sizing are performed in Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe Light Room, and then stored on hard drives and disc backup. I resize the master file to meet the image size requirements of my clients and I do so from the original digital file.


COMPUTERS

I am computer agnostic. I use an Apple Mac Pro and a custom built dual processor AMD based PC daily. Both systems work well and serve my purposes.


PRINTERS

I currently use three types of printers, depending on customer desires and the type of print media selected. If a print is to be a large panorama extending beyond 22 inches in width, I use a Canon IPF 8000 large format printer. This allows me to print images up to 44 inches in height and as wide as necessary. Inks designed for use in this printer, in combination with high quality fine art canvas and papers, will deliver prints rated for a lifespan of over 100 years before fading.

Gallery notecards, photocards and smaller prints are individually produced on a Canon Pro9000 or a desktop Epson Photo printer. Properly matted and displayed behind glass, the images from these printers will last 35-50 years, or more.

I use papers and canvas almost exclusively from Canon, Epson and Breathing Color.