Remember LIFE magazine? I remember others looking at the pictures there and wishing they could go to those spots or meet the people pictured. I wanted to take the picture. I didn’t do much about it.

Fast forward to my 20’s. I bought an SLR, took a class and bought some books and realized that, with a new wife, the first of our four kids and being early in my banking career, I simply could not afford to be a photographer. Paying out all that cash for equipment, as well as film, developing, printing, was definitely beyond my reach. I let it slide.

Fast forward again to age 50. New career, five or six moves, three of the four kids out of school. I lamented the fact that 30 years had passed and I had done nothing about taking photography seriously. My wife asked me if I was still going to be complaining about it when my pension cheques started rolling in or if I was going to do something about it. She was right. I hate when that happens. She’s so much smarter than I am.

So I started out. Again. And since that time my equipment list has grown, I’ve shot landscapes, macros, families, weddings, abstracts, you name it. I played. And then I found out that I love to shoot people. I love the process of the shoot. I love the expressions that can be captured. I love the look they get when they see how good they can look. And when I hand them a print and they just stare at it, and that little bit of a smile starts – that’s priceless!