About Me

(this page is a work in progress, please excuse its current state)

Arizona Landscape

 

I am a retired clinical psychologists and having a
blast. Can’t say I miss the old job a bit.

I was fortunate to grow up on a farm and have a father that could do just about anything. He taught me to use my hands, how to build things and fix things. When I was just a young kid I could overhaul and engine. I started driving when I was about 10 and did my own mechanical work. I remember my paternal grandfather building us a kite, not from a kit, and I just learned how to make things I wanted. In high school I learned drafting and from then on enjoyed drawing blueprints and then building something. When I was involved in archery I studied bows and built all my own. When I fished I built all my own rods and learned to tie my own flies. Building something and seeing or using the finished product has always been very rewarding for me. My dad also taught me photography and the whole darkroom process when I was about about 12.

I have had a lot of hobbies over the years, photography is one of them that has been a passion of mine since childhood. Now I’m more involved in it than ever and love it. I think photography has helped me see the world in a new light and to see things I might have otherwise not see at all. My favorite photography is nature/wildlife photography. I enjoy any action photography.  I do special events as well as charity events to raise money for local shelters. The abandoned pets need all the help they can get.

The most important rewards I received form all of my hobbies were all the great people they brought me in contact with. I photograph nature because I love it but also to share with others in hopes some will learn to appreciate it’s beauty and gain respect for it. It seems to me that people as a whole are becoming detached from nature. If we don’t start taking better care of it we will all be in big trouble.

I like to make things and to learn everything I can about whatever I happen to
be doing.

Me (12 CA), my dog and a snake

 

Two people that seriously influenced my life and view on creating art are Don Reitz http://www.donreitz.com/ and Pete Voulkos http://www.voulkos.com/suprplatejpg.html. Don in his 80’s continues to travel the country doing workshops and making art in his Arizona studio. He works 7 days a week from sun up to sun down.Some pictures of Pete and Don:

Voulkos and me

Don Reitz and me

Reitz and Voulkos

I always had to many toys. Most have been sold except for my little race car which now serves as a fun photography platform. In the Summer I put the top down, put my pup in the passenger seat and look for something to photograph. The performance equipment this on car cost more than the car.

My co-pilot and assistant

Just got her

 

I’m  a private pilot and owned a little Cessna. My dad is also a pilot and has owned many airplanes. Learning to fly was a challenge I’ll never forget, it taught me a lot about me. Shannon was sure fun to fly with and she was a terrific pilot. Bruce has been a close friend for many years. He was one of my high school teachers as well as one of my flight instructors, long history together! Here are some pictures. The one of my wearing a parachute was from a time I took spin training lessons–talk about FUN!

 

I spent a lot of time on the water boating but prefer the quiet of a kayak.

 

I don’t scuba dive any more but I loved it, maybe again later. I had two diving trips to Venezuela. Some place I have film I exposed while diving, I’ll look for it. This is a picture of me in Venezuela:

My wife and I did a lot of traveling on a motorcycle. It was fun but there are to many crazy cars so I sold it.

My wife Joanie and I.

Joanie and I live on a small farm. She raises horses, sheep

and goats. We used to have chickens, pheasants, a peacock, and a pet turkey. His name was Skinner, he lived to be 12 years old. I hatched him from and egg and he would follow me all over the property.

I still do work with pottery and have a high fire salt kiln built built my dad, two brothers and myself. The kiln was designed by Don Reitz. My grandmother used to make ceramics and that started my interest. I’ll post some pictures of my pottery in the blog later. Over the years I enjoyed building furniture, making jewelry using the lost wax method, building fishing rods and long bows.