A gift of a black and white photo class from my parents as a 7th grader led to a lifelong passion for wildlife photography. Growing up in Yellowstone afforded me the opportunity to immerse myself in some of nature's most spectacular wonders and fostered a desire to move north to Alaska.

After a successful teaching career, I was able to focus full time on photography and to spend a portion of every year concentrating my efforts on bears. Bears are intelligent animals that are often misunderstood. I hope through my photography, videos and educational endeavors I can soften and/or reshape the misconceptions that these large animals have been forced to deal with throughout modern history.

Living on Kodiak Island and in close proximity to Katmai National Park, I've been able to observe, photograph and spend time in the field with not only bears but Alaska's other amazing subjects. In recent years photography has taken me to other parts of the world. Travel is knowledge and develops understanding and empathy for other cultures and world problems.