I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Rueb for Aperture Academy last year. As many of you may know, I have recently begun teaching workshops with ApCad, and I could not be happier.  Not only am I getting out into the field to share my love of photography with others, but I get to spend time in some of the most beautiful places on earth with some very inspirational and amazing people!

You can read the full interview here: Photographer of the Month on Aperture Academy’s website …

Here is a excerpt:

:: Talk a little about your development as a photographer; I know we had some part in sinking the photography hook, but what impressed me was that you took what we taught, and then practiced ALL THE TIME. What kinds of things would you set out to accomplish in your practice?

First of all, Aperture Academy, and more specifically the instructors at my first workshop, played a huge role in my progression as a photographer. Growing up I had artistic tendencies, and had even taken an interest in photography shorty after college. This was in the day of the .5 megapixel camera and pretty much all photography education was darkroom-based. I tried… I honestly did … but I never really “got it”. All of the other stuff that it took, to make an image you could view, got in the way of me understanding the very basic mechanics of using a camera. During that workshop, while explaining the use of a graduated neutral density filter, something in my mind connected the dots in a way that let me finally get past that. Balancing the light and exposing the scene so that it can be captured in the camera … a huge revelation for some reason. it allowed me to move on to composition, processing, observing … and lots of practicing.

I am a big believer in practicing anything I do, and photography is no exception. Although I might add that the term practice in this case may not be the best. For me, practice means doing it with a lot of focus, and as you mentioned, doing it often. In some cases, I will go out with a new piece of equipment, say a panoramic tripod head or intervalometer, and make sure that I know how to use it effectively, so that when I really need it for that epic (and fleeting) light, I am confident that I can execute.