I was born and raised in New Jersey,
spending a few years in southeastern Pennsylvania during the summers of my
college years. While I pretty much enjoyed living on the east coast,
from the time I was in early high school I realized that the mountains of
the American West were calling my name. I attribute my love of landscape & scenic photography to
three main reasons/incidents in my life.
#1 -- Skiing (The Passion)
The first is my intense, undying love for skiing and
everything that revolves around it and touches it in any way. In 1982
at age 11, my dad started me
skiing at Cragmire (I think this area has since shut down), a tiny upside-down 400 foot three-tow hill in
northern New Jersey. It had one of everything - one double-chairlift,
one t-bar, and one rope-tow. I graduated to Vernon Valley Great Gorge
and after a trip to Killington, got the chance to travel in the ninth
grade to Utah. Thankfully, my Dad had routine business there so we
arranged a trip. Nothing was the same after that. While in high
school and college, we went to Utah another three times after that trip.
The bug had me and it would not let go.
#2 -- Moving out West
(The Event)
I got married in 1993 after graduating from Rutgers
College with a degree in Statistics. My wife Kim, who was also a
Statistics major from Rutgers, was warned long before our engagement that a
move out west was inevitable. So, in the late summer of 1995, we drove
to Salt Lake City, leaving behind a good job and family and friends, in
search of the never-ending powder day. I found it and many other
things in the Wasatch Mountains east of the Salt Lake Valley.
Specifically, Brighton Ski Area was home base. I worked part time in
the rental shop racking up 110 days skiing that first season. Hiking and
backpacking soon entered my repertoire as the winter season came to a close.
#3 -- Meeting Howie Garber
(The Influence)
My journey began inconspicuously enough after picking up
two skiers at Jordan Pines after work on a Saturday late season in Big
Cottonwood Canyon. They had just skied from Alta and needed a ride down. As
is customary in those parts, I pulled over, helped to load their gear, and
proceeded to spark a conversation. One of the guys was a man named
Howie
Garber: an ER doctor, backcountry skier and a then pro-amateur photographer.
As I found out on the ride down the canyon, he needed
some computer-related assistance with his burgeoning photography career.
With my programming background and similar interests, it seemed a natural
fit so we teamed up... briefly. No sooner than a month or so into this
part-time job and after the ski season ended I found myself at a crossroads
- do I work for Howie and learn how to manage this kind of business or join up with the "real world"
and take a job I was offered as a SAS programmer at a large financial firm?
I chose the latter because it offered me an opportunity I thought
could not be attained elsewhere. While I loved the idea of working for
Howie, my desire to provide for my family with a proven skill set of mine won out. As with other things in my life
at various times,
I was not in sync with this concept so it passed me by at that time.
As fate would have it, that short relationship sparked my previously inert
photographic desire.
Since the summer of
1996, I have taken thousands of slides, many in the
Wasatch Range
surrounding the Salt Lake Valley and the mostly unknown
Uinta Mountains in
northeastern Utah. Since moving to Minnesota in 1999, I shoot in the
Upper Midwest but always find time to travel west. Digital has finally crept into my
bag as is evidenced by a handful of shots that are present in my collection. While my travels have led me to
Alaska, California, Wyoming, Canada and Wisconsin, Utah remains my
passion.
Enjoy what you find contained within this site.
Purchase if you'd like.
