A Different Kind of Sketchbook
Once digital photography became practical, I took a camera nearly everywhere.
I carried one on walks, to gardens and parks, on trips, and even while running errands. Long before phone cameras became capable, digital photography had become a kind of sketchbook for me. I used it to collect ideas, remember interesting details, and preserve moments I wanted to study later.
Today, those cameras have been replaced by the one I carry in my pocket. The habit, however, has never changed.
If an unruly mushroom growing beside a concrete step catches my attention, I stop.
If a tiny viola somehow finds enough determination to bloom from a crack in the sidewalk of a busy city street, I notice.
If a dramatic evening sky puts on a display for a few moments before darkness arrives, I look up and take it in.
Sometimes those observations become watercolor paintings or drawings. Sometimes they inspire drawings or cyanotypes. Often, they simply remain photographs—small discoveries I quietly kept to myself.
For a long time, I thought of my photographs as references rather than finished work. They lived on my computer and then later in the cloud much the way sketches fill pages of a notebook: reminders of places, colors, textures, and moments that had spoken to me.
Recently, however, I realized that I was making an artificial distinction.
The medium isn’t the point.
I used to think the standard for a successful photograph was the exceptional nature photography of Craig Blacklock. I still love his work, but now, I’ve come to realize something else: my photography is about preserving the moments and the things that make me stop and look.
Whether I'm holding a paintbrush, a pencil, or a camera, I'm doing the same thing—I notice, I study, I document, and then I try to create something that captures what drew me in in the first place.
That realization has given me permission to begin sharing my photography alongside my paintings and drawings.
I’m not doing this because I suddenly decided to become a photographer, but because I realized my photographs have always belonged to the same conversation.
They are another way of exploring the patterns, colors, changing light, and quiet moments that continue to draw my attention every day.
Now, I’ve decided to let some of them beyond reference or sketchbook status to stand as finished work. You will now find my photography woven throughout my portfolio, on the site, and at shows and markets - another way of sharing things that made me stop and notice.
Continue Exploring: It’s Not Wrong, About My Path, Current Photographic Prints