Bio: Photodoctor
Home: Wherever I hang my hat!
Born: 12/07/1955
I have always been able to see as good as or better than others. This is a strange remark, from someone who sees the world through coke-bottled glasses, but for some reason, God gave me the ability to see.
I thought he gave me the ability to see when I excelled as a preschool marksman. I could see well enough to snap a swinging cord at 25 yards, with a 22 rifle. This ability followed me though my teen years as I dropped many a deer or clover leafed a target at hundreds of yards. But that isn't why God made me see.
I thought he gave me the ability to see because I excelled at sports. During my school years I was always able to hit a baseball and then a softball in my thirties at a very high batting average. During my school years in the town's or on a high school court and then to anyones court as a thirty something I have always been able to dribble and shoot a basketball. But this wasn't why God made me see.
I thought as a salesman, being able to look into the customer's eyes and tell when it was the right time to close a sale. But that was not why God made me see.
For many a year ......(grin) I thought God gave me the gift to see the twinkle in the lady's eyes to know if they were interested in me or not. Well I think this gift still works from time to time, but that wasn't why God made me see.
I for many a year in my adult life have been able to pull the curtain back between the living world and the past one and see others who are lingering. I still have a pet cat who comes and visits from time to time, but others can't see him, but my dog and I can. This is a present gift and an interesting one, but that is not why God made me see.
I first picked up a camera in scouts, then again in high school as an elective, and then again in college as a credited filler course, but only thought of it as fun. In the early 80's at the near end of my marriage, I developed a nearly career ending back problem. Rehabilitation and my two wonderful children kept me very busy, but I eventually wanted to get back to work. I walked into a mom and pop camera store and asked them for a job, and the rest is history. That day I picked up a camera and fell in love with the photographic medium. Guess that statement said allot for my marriage at the time, well anyway.. After twenty some years of my life God finally showed me why he gave me the ability to see.
Photography has gotten me through some of the hardest times, in my life. I have always been able to pick up the camera and go do something difficult and loose myself in it and forget everything else and return with some very remarkable results, so I know this is why God gave the the ability to see. I has been about twenty five years now since I bought my first Pentax K-1000SE and I still am shooting with Pentax 35mm, 120mm, and Digitals. I have spent many hours, days, weeks, month and I guess years reading the brilliant words and viewing the wonderful photos of Ansel Adams, Minor White, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, W.Eugene Smith, Robert Capa. Paul Strand, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri-Cartier Bresson, John Hedgecoe, Gallen Rowell, John Shaw, George Lepp, Anne Leibovotz and many others. God also gave me the abilities to solve complex mathematical equation in my head on the fly, this very unused talent, laid dormant since high school, but exploded when I had to figure out exposure value equations. I have been able to, like Ansel Adams and other, visualize a scene, without a camera, and know what will make up a great shot before then camera has reached my eye. I have long said I have no artistic talent, just “God Given Ability”.I know I annoy my friends when we are out shooting, because I look at what they are shooting and then say, “Well what about this other view?”
I guess you can say I am a very lucky man, and I give the credit to the most import people in my life: My God, My Mom and My Dad. I thank God every day for what talents I have been give and I go out of my way to help others in the arts with their photographic projects. My Mom past along her love of politics, sports, food, shinny cars, shopping and her love of family.. My Dad past along his love of music, the arts, the wilderness, hunting & fishing, his work ethic and his love of the Roman Catholic religion. Even though they both are gone I thank them every time I can, and know I would have been nowhere without them.
On a more personnel note I am a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I am as Cryptic as I am Easy To Read! I am Caring, as I am Difficult! I am Distant & Reclusive as I am Outgoing! I am as much at home navigating through Pittsburgh as I am walking through the highlands of West Virginia. My faith guides me but I believe in the “bond with close friends” rather the bond with a church full of people. I have built my life and thoughts around four prime words: Faith, Hope, Trust & Love. Think about it, because you can't have Hope without Faith and you can't have Love without Trust.
Whatever is going on in my life, anyone can surely tell I love my two children, Heather and Joshua, my seven, very bad at times, grandchildren, and my new wife - Vickie Ann Little. Yes, As of the 21st of December '09 we made the biggest decision of our lives on the shortest day of the year.
I constantly chat with friends, around the world, via e-mail, so if you have a question or a specific problem that has been haunting you, drop me a line at
photodoctor@hotmail.com, and I will answer it. God Bless and Good Shooting !!!
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