What we are called to do, be it a salaried job, the roles we play in our daily lives, or our passion.

The single lens reflex camera is a masterpiece of mechanical engineering. It is a symphony of gears, springs, plungers, and levers working in concert to produce a latent image that will ultimately become a photograph. The photographer feels the exposure occur when the shutter is released.

I work with 35mm single lens reflex cameras, such as the Nikon F and Nikkormat series, the Canon FTb and AE-1, and rangefinder cameras like the Yashica 35 Electro GTN and Konica Hexar. The Mamiya M645 single lens reflex and Mamiya 'C' series twin lens reflex cameras produce larger negatives for landscape and portrait work. Experimentation with pinhole cameras is also an option.

The digital Fuji Finepix S2 Pro digital camera is useful for its remarkable ability to capture images in the near-infrared spectrum when used with an R72 filter. These images have a false color palette with a patina resembling that of renaissance paintings.

I photograph my subjects with 35 millimeter and medium format roll films. My favorite type is monochrome. I use Fortepan, Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford film for monochrome work and Fujichrome Velvia for color. The warm and deeply saturated colors of Velvia scan true to the original image and its grain is nearly imperceptible.

Just as watercolor and oils have unique qualities that are difficult or impossible to reproduce photographically, film-based photographs have qualities that are difficult to produce digitally without looking 'digital'.

Archive quality film is technology-proof. As long as there is light and we have eyes that can see it, film will always produce a printable image.

I process film in the usual way and then digitize the slides and negatives with film scanners. Final image processing is done on an Apple MacBook Pro with Aperture 3 image management software.