My photography is and will always be influenced by the rural environment of the Tri-State area. My roots run deep here. I live only nine miles from the ranch I grew up on. That ranch contains both the homestead of my Grandfather and the homestead of my Great-Grandfather. I see changes happening at an ever increasing tempo; many of those changes are to me- negative changes. Honestly; I just love to shoot, but those times when I am able to photograph in a way that expresses the soul of the land and the people who live here I find great reward.

Photography gives me a way to capture the beauty of a land that many see no beauty in. For many of the travelers along US Highway 212 (The Warrior Trail) southeast Montana is a place to get through on the way to Yellowstone National Park or to the Black Hills. They miss what nature is offering them in the stark landscape, the deer, the antelope, the fox, the abandon house that was someones home.

The oppurtunities are endless for the great shot. I find that the use of both black and white and color capture the soul of the prairie. Most images call out for the use of film. It is hard iin an area where in many ways time has stood still to capture the feel of the land with digital equipment. My heart will always be with film and the darkroom. With film each print is different. There are no two gelatin silver prints that are the same. Unlike digital where after the original manipulation each and every print is the same.

In an area where the view changes with each step sameness is empty.

my best dog

I am .....................

I am a photographer. I am good at it. It has taken me awhile to believe that and trust myself. At one point I was helping a person move. While waiting to get another load I arranged the furniture in one of the rooms in the house. Just for fun. I thought it looked pretty good but did not think too much of it. Shortly after that the people had a professional interior decorator come by and help them arrange the house. She told them that she would not move anything in that room it look good like it was. That scared me. but it was a nice boost. I began more and more to trust my eye.

There is beauty in everything around us. As people we just need to let go and look. Even in the things that are repulsive to some there is beauty. Photographer Sally Mann did a project called "What Remains." She photographed at an FBI center where they research crime scene investigation. As part of the research they leave human bodies laying around to decay. Mann photographed these bodies. They are some beautiful photographs. There is beauty in anything if you look.

I have come to love the world in a way I never thought possible. The rain, the snow, the accident, the fire, the dog, the ant, the mouse, the old house, the new house, all have beuaty in them. The movie

Koyaanisqatsi

is about a world gone a muck but even in this world the beauty is still there.