In 1979 my late Uncle Charles moved into my family’s California home in order to expand his East Coast business to the West. Our house would be his California “headquarters,” while his home in New Jersey would continue to be a permanent address. Charles would stay with us for up to eight weeks at a time, and was a great source of entertainment for our family. A lover of games, jokes, and music, my uncle was simultaneously kind and chauvinistic… a man of his age, but not this age. A connoisseur of finer things, Charles wore a Rolex watch, listened to music with his McIntosh stereo, and captured the world through a Leica lenses. It is the latter point that probably initiated my 45 year love affair with photography. Charles was the consummate shutterbug, creator of family portraits, documenter of vacations, and the “Uncle Bob” that drives every wedding photographer to drink. His love of photography spilled over and onto me, and is the reason I am a photographic “artist” today.

In 1986 I was “hired” to be a research assistant and grunt for a project situated on a tiny island in the Bering Sea. I was an undergraduate student that impressed a professor who was looking for young people to live rough and collect data on a sub-arctic island. I was enamored by the prospect of doing authentic research, idolized the primary investigator, and thought this would be a gateway to a PhD. While I was comfortable with the basics of field ecology, I was naive, young, and hungry; I hungered for knowledge, recognition, and nutrients. A poor college student living in a shack at a campus trailer park, I saw this research opportunity as a chance to have a trip of a lifetime and set a course for my future; little did I know, my trip to Alaska would ultimately carve the path that was and is my life today. Three weeks into the research project our team was “saddled” with a junior high school science teacher who had paid to be on a University Expedition. University Expeditions was an organization that paired lay-people with scientists, and its participants pay to work with “real” researchers. Dwight Sieggreen from Detroit Michigan joined us for two weeks, and we became my quick companion. More than 20 years to my senior, I was Dwight’s liaison and teacher of field methodologies, while he became an ear-worm that led me to consider a career in public education. Hearing about the impact he was having on generations of children, and the summer adventures he experienced during off times, I began to embrace the potential of what ultimately led to my 32 year career in science education. Furthermore, Dwight was a shutterbug with more knowledge about making pictures in nature than I could have imagined. While I spent hours teaching him how to observe nesting pelagic birds and measuring the dimensions of beaks, feet, and eggs, he spent an equal amount of time helping me understand exposure theory, composition, and decisive moments. A one-two punch, Mr. Sieggreen introduced me to my potential as an educator and reignited my passion for photography that began with my Uncle Charles.

This tale of my past lays the foundation for a series of blogs that I am titling “The Nature Photographer’s Dilemma.” Now, at age 60, I am a lifetime photographer, hopelessly devoted to capturing what I see with my camera, interpreting the world through a lens, and seeking a way to express myself artistically. I stand on the shoulder of countless other photographers that preceded me and mentors who I’ve sought to emulate and impress. My photography is an expression and manifestation of my experiences as a biologist, teacher, traveler, and human. Yet, this very thing that is my obsession is also is a source of frustration, anxiety, and questioning. We live in a world where images are ubiquitous, and anybody can be a “photographer.” So, what does it mean to be a photographer and how can someone stand out when everyone is making images? Is it necessary to stand out, or can we find satisfaction in anonymity? It is my endless tendency, dare I say personality quirk, to reflect on the past as I push into the future, and this quirk has me thinking about what I consider to be a dilemma.

If you are interested in my musings and my rationale for this obsession, I hope that you will read my thoughts as I try to articulate the “Nature Photographer’s Dilemma” in a series of 10 blog posts throughout July, August, and September…

For those interested in where I am heading, this is the itinerary I hope to explore…

-> Dilemma i : History and Future of Nature Photography

-> Dilemma ii : Why Photography

-> Dilemma iii : Staying Motivated

-> Dilemma iv : Creativity in the Face of Technological Innovation

-> Dilemma v : Editing

-> Dilemma vi : Keeping up with the Jones’s

-> Dilemma vii : Skill vs Automation

-> Dilemma viii : Being Seen

-> Dilemma ix : Throw Back Thursday

-> Dilemma x : Closing Thoughts and AI