Photography began as a hobby for me, photographing my young daughters, their friends, their activities, the landscape around me, and any still life setup I could dream up on my kitchen table. I bought used darkroom equipment and spent hours printing my parents' old negatives. Most of my early education in photography was through reading and the Traverse Area Camera Club. However, when my daughter’s best friend said, “But you are going to photograph my wedding, aren’t you?” I bought a digital camera and took a workshop. I loved wedding photography, and when, after 29 years working in the Human Resources field, I had the opportunity to retire, I started an “encore career” in photography.
For the first few years I concentrated on wedding and portrait photography, but I decided that planning my life a year in advance was getting in the way of my retirement. While I enjoy landscape and nature photography, I have found over the years, even in wedding photography, that it was capturing the details, the essence of a place, or the emotion of a person, that I enjoyed most.
I continue to attend workshops, learn from other photographers, and study art to train my eye to see. Now I shoot for myself, celebrating the shape, the form, the design of the space around me, and collecting through photography things that delight me.
Many things have influenced my work, not the least are the friends with whom I’ve journeyed, whether to a local park or to a far-off continent, and with whom I’ve shared some amazing experiences. I’m grateful for so many wonderful memories.