I live with my wife on the western border of Yosemite National Park in El Portal, California. Here the Merced River runs from the crest of the Sierra Nevada and down through our small rural community. My real job is that of an elementary school teacher where I teach grades 4, 5, and, 6 in a single classroom.

I began backpacking through the Sierra Nevada at the age of twelve and later worked for a summer camp where I began leading overnight trips into Yosemite. In 1992 I came to work for Yosemite Institute where I taught environmental outdoor education and met my wife Mara. Having always had an interest in natural history and biology, I left Yosemite in 1994 to pursue graduate school at Idaho State University where I earned a MS degree in biology and a teaching credential. While living in Idaho and conducting fieldwork in Yellowstone, I became seriously drawn toward the natural landscape. Mara and I returned to El Portal in 1999 and now live in a small fixed up mining shack.

My interest in photography began as a kid when my brother and I converted our bathroom into a black and white darkroom. I also was an avid SCUBA diver and soon bought a Nikonos II underwater camera and flash. Mostly I would photograph marine invertebrates and kelp. Despite the ocean being far more vast than Yosemite, I now find that my photographic passion is in the mountains I’ve spent much of my life exploring.

I especially like to set out alone or with my wife in search of colors, textures, and patterns that change with the seasons and lighting. Having grown up in the San Francisco bay area I have always been intrigued by the ecological transitions that I observe as I cross California from west to east. I welcome the fog in the summer along the coast, taco trucks in the central valley, late winter wildflowers in the foothills, fall colors in the valley, and desert trips in the early spring. My passion for photography forces me to get out of the house and closely explore the park which is my back yard.

My work has been sold through the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley.