As a former Marine combat photographer and newspaper photographer, I now teach photography to the U.S. Marine Corps, Army, and Navy. Without daily assignments I now have more time to focus on my underwater photography. My goals include photographing shipwrecks, inside caves, and aquatic life. I want to share the underwater world to those who haven't had the opportunity to explore it on their own. Photographing nature and underwater ecosystems bring a sense of relaxation that I find nowhere else. I first learned photography from reading a series of books by Ansel Adams called The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. His words influenced me to always strive for the highest image quality possible. This eagerness for excellence, along with the attention to detail I learned from the Marine Corps, is what helps set me apart from other photographers. Other photographers that have inspired me include Becky Kagan Schott, Alex Mustard, James Nachtwey, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Harold Edgerton, and Arno Rafael Minkkinen. |