I grew up farming in southwest Minnesota. While either working or driving from field to field I always had my eyes glued to the local wildlife. After high school in 1978 I went to the Univ. of MN to major in studio arts focusing on the wheel thrown pottery. A few years down the road in 1981 I married my wife Ellen. We had our first child Ariel; which enticed me to buy my first camera a Cannon AE1 in order to photograph my new daughter. I soon turned to sitting out in either fence lines or blinds to photograph deer and waterfowl along with any other wildlife that passed my way.

I started out with Kodakrome 24 and 64 ISO speed slide film and then moved to Ectachrome 100 and 200 ISO slide film. Around 2005 I made the jump to a digital camera; a Canon 20D 8 mega pixel camera with a rebel XTI 10 mega pixel camera for back-up. In 2008 I purchased a Canon 50D 15 mega pixel camera and basically use that for all my photography now. The lenses I use the majority of the time are a 70-200 2.8, a 300 2.8 and a 100-400 mage stabilized lens. The extensive part of the work load is done by my 300 lens.

I usually go on a couple of photo excursions a year ranging from the great Mississippi River area in Minnesota and Wisconsin, to Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Montana and a few fascinating locations in Alaska. My son Cole, born in 1990 has gone on most of my photo outings with me since he was about 5 yrs old. I started having him take photos with me a few years after that, when he was just 12 he shot some impressive photos of a grizzly sow that charged us - but stopped when she was about 20 yards away.

In 2008, Cole started attending Air Force Academy Prep school then on to the Academy in 2009 where he wrestles for the Air Force Academy. His photo time has greatly been reduced do to the rigorous schedule but we managed to squeeze in a four day trip to Glacier Park, Montana last June. We were able to capture some exciting shots of big horn sheep and mountain goats that we used in the 2010 calendar. I generally match the months from the calendar year with the time of the year that I actually take the photos. Even though I travel to numerous National Parks, I still take a large portion of my photos relatively close to where I live. I photographed a red fox den in the spring of 2009 that was only 3 miles from my home. The summer of 2009 I had the opportunity to take some intriguing shots of a Bald Eagle nest that was about 12 miles from my home. Photographing animals in your surrounding area gives me a chance to go back multiple times to record different images. I am inspired by the beauty of nature that can be captured by the lens of a camera. Please enjoy the awesome fraction in time that can be illustrated with a picture.