Photo by Don Fink
Born in San Diego, California, I spent most of my leisure time as a child either enjoying the outdoors at Mission Bay in San Diego and the Pacific Ocean, or attending museums and events in Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. In my early teens, I began to want to preserve and share what I saw through photography. It’s possibly the time I spent at the zoo that gave me the intense interest I have in photographing wildlife. Well, that and the fact that my best friend and I raised Guinea Pigs, which were easy to photograph. Admittedly, they weren't quite as exciting as meeting a Bengal Tiger in the woods, but they were consistent and usually cooperative.
While everyone in my family had their interests, I was the one with the camera in my hands, whether it was on vacation, using our 8mm movie camera or just annoying my friends, sisters, and parents. My first 35mm camera was a Canon Pellix.
After a career as an air traffic controller – all the while pursuing an intense hobby of photography – I have seriously begun the process of capturing wildlife in photographs for everyone to enjoy.
I spend my summers at home in northern New Mexico, traveling throughout the United States and Canada to capture my images. My favorite parks currently are Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain National Park, Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes in Canada.
While I've spent many winters in northern New Mexico, I have lately been traveling to Florida to start off the year, then slowly moving my way along the southern states throughout winter and spring. Of course, there's always an occasional diversion to other locations when we discover something new and interesting to photograph.
I am making my images in an all-digital format because I am better able to control the process. I do not make images that don’t already exist in the real world, preferring instead to interpret the scenes that nature plays out before me. My goal is to share as much about the wildlife community as I can with as many people as are willing to stop for a brief instant and look.
