As a photographer and an artist it is my goal at a transitional period in my life to focus on my photography and create professional quality photographic images. With an established interest in sharing my knowledge and skills I will also involve in teaching Photography. My present major focus is with doing landscapes and portraits. With an eye on quality I will continue to capture and create realistic, unique, and memorable essences of my environment and the people around me. A lifelong interest, exposure, and immersion in cultural geography and studies in awareness, art, and photography have influenced my personal choice of images. Many of the technical skills applied in rendering, cultivating, and finishing my images culminate from training and education in medical imaging, art, photography, and digital imaging. I will apply a combination of skills, techniques, and tools in the creation of each image much as an artist creates a drawing or a fine painting and uses the tools and techniques at his/her discretion. I face the challenge of continuing to refine both my aesthetic and technical skills with each new image.

I developed from scratch two Community College Medical Imaging programs and directed Certificate, AS, and BS Medical Imaging programs. . . in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and California. Additionally, I taught Photography, Commercial Art, and Graphic Arts at Chinle High School. I taught and lived in Espanola, New Mexico for three years with frequent excursions to clinical affiliates in Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, and Espanola.

My education has been an eclectic accumulation of skills and knowledge (formal and informal). This was not a general, haphazard accumulation but an independently directed, ongoing pursuit of knowledge specific to the development of abilities supportive of an established repertoire. I subscribe to the maxim that education is lifelong. My studies have been predominantly “Imaging”. I have always liked and entertained the saying, “so much to learn, so little time”. I graduated with a BA in Fine Art from CSU-Stanislaus and a BS in Photography and Printing Technology from Northern Arizona University (with a minor in Business Administration). I completed Medical Imaging studies at the Army’s Medical Field Service School in San Antonio, Texas and at Northern Arizona University. I completed a Master’s in Career and Technical Education at Northern Arizona University as well. Later, I completed a Certificate in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems Management from the Michener Institute out of Toronto and a Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning from CSU-East Bay. For the PACS Administration Program I did an internship at Sick Kids' Pediatric Hospital in Toronto.

I have supplemented this repertoire with additional post degree studies:

• Advanced Photography (Zone System), San Juan College, NM
• Digital Photography, San Juan College, NM
• Photoshop CS4, CSU-Dominguez Hills
• Photoshop CS4, Columbus State Community College, Ohio
• History of Photography, Bellevue College, Washington

I acquired lifetime Community College Teaching Certificates from both California and Arizona qualifying me to teach Medical Imaging, Fine Arts, Graphic Arts and Photography at the post secondary level and additional Vocational Certificates in Arizona and New Mexico qualifying me to teach at the secondary and post secondary levels respectively. As a radiographer I sought to learn everything I could about film, processing, and processing quality control. I obtained Advanced Certification in Quality Management from ARRT our national registry board –an honor shared by only 4 out of every 1000 RT’s.

I've been in and out of school my whole life. My brothers used to call me a 'drop in' (rather than a dropout) because my transcripts were so erratic. Someday, I will do up a card that says "professional student".

Lesson number one: Before going into the Army I took a few semesters of Community College which all started with a class my colleagues referred to as bone-head English. Fred Morgan taught this class. He taught us to write by making us acutely aware of our surroundings. We increased our awareness with exercises in the Here and Now. We were his guinea pigs –He hadn’t yet published his first edition of a very practical textbook. I wandered into a Stars and Stripes bookstore in Qui Nhon and the cover of a book caught my eye –bright blue and orange letters on a white background, Here and Now --an approach to writing through perception. Wow, I was excited. I’ve collected, lost, and replaced 3 editions of this book. And I’ve learned to quit lending them to people. Over the years that followed I applied these same concepts annd principles not just to my writings but to my art and photography as well.

Lesson number Two: After the Army I returned to Community College to complete my AA. This final semester was a fun combination of Ceramics, Spanish, Mexican American History, and Latin American Art. I was ready for my second trip to Mexico. With a dear friend I traveled deep into Mexico by train. I was impressed by the rolling green hills dotted with deep brown casas of rich adobe. I told myself that I would learn to paint –so I could capture these fascinating landscapes and share them with the world. Mexico City was a beautiful city with giant murals, unique ancient churches and basilicas of mestizo baroque architecture and several museums and art galleries –the Palace of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Diego Rivera Gallery. I also visited the floating gardens of Xochimilco, and the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan.

In the beginning, not as much by choice as by default I was an adventurer / an explorer. Later on, I made career choices that involved me in a variety of travels. I first learned Medical Imaging in the Army. X-ray was my ticket to travel. After the Army, I completed my art studies in California and then took a job with Indian Health Service in Alaska. Free of diversion and distraction I concentrated on doing drawings of people and animals and I photographed everything. I rounded out my efforts with ceramic sculptures.

Through my travels I explored a vast geography and a breadth of approaches / experiences in photography, art, education and management with a work history spanning 50 years. This included 20 years of teaching Medical Imaging, Photography, and Graphic Arts. I will retire from my 5th Imaging Education Program Director position in August 2017 (after completing 10 consecutive years of management and teaching and obtaining two consecutive maximum accreditation awards). When not involved in teaching I involved in practicing my imaging and management skills and pursuing my education.

My military experience and a short stint with the VA took me to Hawaii, Viet Nam, Japan, Washington, Texas, Kentucky, and Alabama. As an Imaging Specialist and Imaging Manager I retired as a civil servant / federal employee after 21 years of service. For 18 of these 21 years I worked in rural, Native America. Much of this was spent living and working on the Navajo Reservation off and on for most of 30 years –in the villages of Tuba City, Ganado, Many Farms, Chinle, and Tsaile. The neighboring countryside offered ample opportunity for trekking and photographing in the outdoors. The Reservation offers an infinite number of photo-ops with access to such national wonders as to the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Coal Mine Canyon, Monument Valley, Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Other experiences found me living on the San Carlos and White Mountain Apache reservations, within the Oklahoma Territory, in the Eight Northern Pueblos Region of Northern New Mexico, and in both Southern and Northern Arctic Alaska.