Born and raised on the north central prairies of Montana my interest in photography blossomed close in time with the beginnings of the Montana Magazine. My earliest dreams in photography were to be published in the Montana Magazine. In the mid 1980 ’s I fulfilled this dream and went on to have images published in many other books, magazines, brochures and postcards.
I graduated from Montana State University, Bozeman and began a teaching career at Columbia Falls High School, Columbia Falls, MT. After having taught high school chemistry for 27 years, the opportunity to pursue photography fulltime presented itself in 2002. Since that time I have strived to increase my stock photo inventory, increase sales for publication and develop an inventory of fine art prints for sale including Giclee prints. Since the fall of 2005 I have belonged to, Paint Metal and Mud, an Artists’ cooperative located in the Kalispell Grand Hotel in Kalispell, Montana. The co-op is a small group of 12 Montana artists. I am the only photographer currently in the group.
I have added to my collection of equipment for photography, two trained pack llamas. Their purpose is to carry my camping gear and photo equipment into the backcountry. They are capable of carrying 70-80 lbs each, which means I can easily carry gear and food for as much as two weeks and I can travel in style for trips of shorter duration. Unless I travel in national parks, I don’t need to carry food for the llamas. On the national forests they can graze and are highly diverse about what they will eat. Grasses are their main substance but readily eat leaves from shrubbery, pine needles and bark from trees. I transport the llamas in a 250 Ford Econoline van. They sit in the back, look out the side windows, hum to the music on the radio and sometimes want to join me up front. They make for great companions on the trail as they can hear, see and smell better than I can. In addition I sleep better at night knowing I have an early warning system for things that stalk the night.