The Artist

I have loved photography for many years and had minimal time to dedicate and enjoy this art prior to 2002. My professional career was in telecommunications and quality management where I could utilize my creative talents in the development and design of various training and consulting projects for my clients and students. I retired from that field in 2002 and began a long desired journey behind the camera traveling to capture and create images of wildlife and their surroundings.

I am self taught and continue to educate myself as much as possible about photography and the various associated skills within that media. After retirement, my husband, Jim, and I began to live our dream of travel and photography. We both love animals and share in the joy of anticipation of what will come next "with the leopard in the tree" or the "grizzly waiting for her salmon". Nature always allows one to enjoy the uniqueness and beauty of what there is to offer - it is up to us to stop, look, and listen. My desire is to capture the "raw moment" of nature, the good and the not so good, the beautiful and the sometimes gruesome (but necessary) behavior of each animal. Most of our journeys have take us "up close and personal" with various types of wildlife. For example, snorkeling with the humpback whales of the Dominican Republic; or walking the wilderness and waterways of Katmai to be within a few feet of the fabulous grizzly bears and their cubs; or hiking the rain forest of Uganda to capture a photograph of the "gentle giant" - the mountain gorilla; or floating down the waterways and fjords of the Inside Passage to experience the incredible marine life of humpback and orca whales; or traveling some of the roughest waterways in the world - The Drakes Passage - to experience incredible bird & marine life of the Antarctic. Our favorite adventure remains our journeys to the unbelievable continent of Africa with their amazing bird life, and fabulous "Big Five" and the wonderful Masai people of Africa.

All of my photography is edited, printed, and framed by me in my studio. My equipment of choice has been the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and 7D with various Canon lens since I moved to the digital world in 2005. I have recently taken a liking to the Panasomic Lumix FX1000 - one of the newer mirrorless 4/3 cameras on the market. All of my prints are signed by me and printed and framed using archival paper and inks.

In 2007, in WA, I became very active in the Whatcom Artist Guild and a local photography club. This is where I took my first painting class in Watercolor and found I really loved to paint. I later discovered the technique that is called Watercolor Batik which is done on rice paper and seems to work very well for painting my photographs. This is the technique that I use for all of my paintings. We are back in CA. and I have become very involved in several different art associations and photography clubs.