I picked up my first camera about 45 years ago, an old Kodak Rangefinder. I quickly fired off a couple of shots then had the camera immediately ripped out of my hands by my angry mother. It seems film and processing weren’t really that cheap in those days and she wasn’t impressed by my early attraction to this art form.

When I got a little older and could afford it myself I picked up a state of the art Polaroid SX70, the must have instant camera of its day. Of course the quality wasn’t the greatest but at least I got to practice composition as everything else was pretty much fully automatic.

This is where my pursuit of the medium for the most part languished for the next decade as I rarely shot and only had a few cheap Kodak Instamatic cameras.

That all changed about 25 years ago when I purchased a used Canon AE1. Everything on the camera was manual so I had to go out and actually learn about photography and how to take a good picture. Practice makes perfect so I took some photography courses and was continually shooting just about any subject I could think of. Of course, I was still shooting on film so it was (and still is) a very expensive hobby.

I eventually decided I needed an upgrade from my 1970′s model camera and purchased a Canon Elan 7 camera. This was my first modern DSLR and I couldn’t get enough of it. Unfortunately my wallet could and I still couldn’t really afford the multiple rolls of film and the processing costs. About this time I also began shooting video as digital had just come out and really intrigued me.

I began shooting lots of video and photos and decided I would like to do this on a more full time basis as it definitely interested my more than my full time occupation. I enrolled in a number of photography courses and consumed all that was taught. I also enrolled in a full time film production course at the Toronto Film School and easily graduated with Honours and also won the school’s Cinematographer of the Year Award along the way. Upon graduation I was immediately offered the opportunity of teaching at the school.

I began instructing basic labs in the studio but eventually taught everything from cameras, lighting and cinematography, film production and television production. In addition to teaching I continued to shoot both film(video) and photography. I shot and produced a number of productions including feature films and television shows. After 6 years of teaching the school closed down and I immediately began operating my own production company: Colosseum Productions which focuses mainly on weddings and corporate videos.

My real passion is and always has been photography and in particular travel and landscape photography. It is something I try to partake in as much as possible and I try to commit to at least one foreign destination each year. Along the way I have discovered that I miss instructing others that are hungry for photographic knowledge and have thus dedicated myself to helping others.

While this site focusing on my own work I am at present developing a couple of instructional sites: www.photographyheadquarters.com and www.digital-photography-academy.com. I hope to have these sites up and running very soon. I will also be selling a number of photography e-books I am currently writing on a variety of subjects.

So keep visiting this site and the others for updates. For my former students I am always open to help you in your image creation pursuits and remember:

“To create memorable images its not the equipment that matters but the person operating that equipment.”