I have been a large format fine art photographer who has been working in the Adams/Weston tradition shooting mostly landscape and industrial subjects.  My work has been in LensWork, View Camera and Trains Magazines and I am known for the quality of my black and white images.

A few years back I started shooting with a digital camera and in late 2011, through Meetup groups, I began shooting the nude.  Working with models has been a new experience for me and some of you have been amazing.  Every shoot has produced something different and I now have a portfolio with some images that I'm very pleased with.

After doing Meetup group shoots for about two years, I began to work with models on a one on one basis, so if you like what you see let me know and perhaps we can work together.  I'm particularly interested in working with local models who I can work with on an ongoing basis and do location shoots that depend on the Bay Area’s variable weather.

I have been trying to define just what it is that I am trying to do, it is not fashion or even so much glamor, but rather the relationship between an artist and his muse.  As such I want my models to be my muse, at least when they are in front of my camera.  Robert Graves described the muse-poet relationship as being where the poet serves as the mouthpiece of the muse.  Of course what the poet writes is his translation of what his muse is saying.

As I see it, with the muse-photographer relationship, it is the muse who is being creative, she acts through gesture, facial expression and body language.  The photographer looks after the lighting, composition, tonal separation, provides the setting, helps to set the mood, but then merely interprets and records what the muse has to say.

I had a model inquire about doing a shoot with me, she said  “I find your traditional photography background that has transformed into a style where you explore a true interaction between model and photographer to be extremely strong.”  I find this recognition of how my style has evolved to be very gratifying.  It begins with who I choose to work with.  The Arizona Shootout has been a great source of models for me as I can meet them and do a short one-on-one shoot and see how they react to me and my camera.  But I do look elsewhere, I don't go looking through MM profiles, but if someone contacts me or I come across someone on social media, I carefully examine a their portfolio here to see how they interact with the camera, is she just a living mannequin, or do I see an interaction with the photographer.  Can she look at the camera and smile like she is having fun with a friend, maybe even being flirtatious?  If I don’t see this in at least a few photos in a model’s portfolio, I pass her by.  If I do see it then I am eager to work with her.

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