Now-retired, I am able to delve into my photographic hobby headfirst without any career distractions. Being a traditionalist, I use a wet darkroom and create by hand, silver gelatin black and white prints.
I prefer to shoot film over digital, using all formats from 35 mm to an 8 by 10 View Camera. All film images are printed in the darkroom; no digital scanning or hybrid methods are used.
Occasionally, I will take digital images, even in color, but in my heart I remain deeply seated in the creative process of the traditional Silver gelatin print. I have been trained by one of Ansel Adams assistance in the infamous Yosemite darkroom, formerly owned by the master himself.
The Barefoot studio in Promised Land, Pennsylvania, is the location of my summer dark room, where negatives up to 5 x 7 can be enlarged to 24 by 30 in. The studio is also set up for Still Life photography.
My wife Mary and Clancy, our orange polydactyl Tabby, enjoy our year-round vacation home which borders the Promised Land State Park in Pennsylvania. Home to the largest black bear population in the Northeast, we are visited by these beautiful creatures almost daily between April through November. I never go into the studio without my bear spray and when I come out at night it's a tad unnerving..
