Photography has been an interest and passion of my life. As a child my parents gave me a Brownie that I enjoyed. Photography continued to be an interest. After college, a friend asked if I would be interested in setting up a darkroom in his garage. We did. But realizing we were just sharing our ignorance, we struck up a friendship with a local photographer and the owner of a camera store. We picked their brains. I took a photo course. But to this day, when I see the old gentleman who used to own the camera store, I tell him, "It's all your fault!"
Photography became a passion.
After working for a couple photographers and trying some freelance work, I purchased a studio in Memphis, TN. Memphis was my wife Barbara Jeans's hometown. Business was good, but I had that wanderlust for more education. I had a B.A. and a M.A. But I sold the studio to work on two additional Master's degrees and a doctorial degree.
While going back to school, my wife and I continued to practice photography working out of our home. We settled in Tonkawa and Northern Oklahoma College. We continued to work out of our home for the next few years. I was employed by NOC as a photography instructor and worked in the Public Information Office. Eventually, I moved to full-time teaching.
We opened a storefront studio, which grew and ultimately opened a second studio in nearby Ponca City, Oklahoma. The Ponca studio quickly grew to be our main operation, as Ponca City is a much larger town than Tonkawa. We sold that studio three years ago to our middle son. So he and his wife operate that business today.
Today, My wife and I, are engaged in the smaller studio in Tonkawa. She is a CPP and Craftsman. I am still teaching full time and enjoy both areas of activity. I am the director of PPO (Oklahoma) School (a PPA Affiliate School) and enjoy teaching workshops and speaking.
Through all this landscape has been my passion. I have taught landscape workshops for about 20 years. I still enjoy getting "out there."
