In the late 1960's at the age of 12, I began a Rites of Passage adventure with my mentor Bo Amroth. We traveled through 35 states in three months exploring the back roads and wilderness areas throughout our trip. I was to discover what it meant to be a man. Indigenous cultures believed that manhood started at the age of 12 and 13. Young almost men were sent on vision quests to find the dream or the vision that was to be their life. My time with Bo was to teach me what it meant to live a life of honor as a man and the test at the end of the journey was a solo climb up Mt. Shasta.
My father had given me a Kodak instamatic "point and shoot" camera to document my adventures. For the first couple of weeks, I took pictures of everything. I found out that photography was a doorway into a deeper connection with nature. From the age of six, I had spent most of my time in the woods and I learned survival skills and nature awareness skills from many teachers. I found on this trip that photography helped focus my already aware mind and I began to use the camera as a creative tool taking pictures as if I were painting beautiful colors on canvas. When the camera broke and I couldn't replace it, I still paid attention to how light could paint a crimson red landscape at dawn or dusk.
When I returned home my love for the natural world had deepened and I wanted a way that I could express the beauty that I saw in each day. My father gave me his 35mm Kodak camera and a light meter, which in retrospect was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. From that moment I have taken thousands of pictures of sacred moments with animals, sunsets and sunrises, of winter storms and thunderstorms, deserts and mountains and oceans.
In the 1970's the Sierra Club started making fine softbound color photo books of nature. At the time, the books were unique and they helped spark interest in the environmental movement. They were an inspiration for me to work with color film so that I could document places in nature that were quickly being destroyed. I wanted to help protect what precious resources we had by showing people what could be lost. One of the Sierra Club books that demonstrated so clearly the power of nature photography was one entitled "Glen Canyon - the place that no one knew" by Elliot Porter. Porter photographed this canyon in detail. Its beauty was incredible and quite indescribable. I had spent some time in the canyon and was struck by the visual intimacy that Porter had captured. As the book was being published, the canyon was damned and filled with water as a reservoir for an ever-expanding Arizona population even though the canyon was in Utah. It was also to be used as a recreation site for boaters. Porter's photos were all that remained of one of nature's true gifts. It's vital to have a visual representation of what is lost so that people are able to see and hopefully understand that such losses diminish humanity rather than enhance humanity. Today, thirty-five years later, scientists have discovered that the lake is filling up with silt from the red sandstone and that the power generated from the reservoir is not enough to power the expanding populations so the idea of draining Lake Powell and returning the canyon to its natural state is gaining ground.
Since that time I have taken thousands of photographs in countless beautiful places which has taught me how to look at the physical world. A good photographer needs to get up before the first light and stay after the last light - or the sacred times in nature that most people miss. Taking good pictures requires careful observation and patience, lots of patience while waiting for that special wildlife photo. It builds a deep intimacy with one's surroundings in all kinds of weather.
I started Headwaters Outdoor School thirteen years ago so that I could share my love of nature with kids and adults. I am now opening my first photo gallery and website to share this love of nature through my photography. I hope that I can inspire people to care more deeply for this amazing earth. We are careless with our wilderness and with our most precious resources. We think that the water and the trees and clean air will last forever but they won't - they are being destroyed faster than they can replenish themselves. I hope these pictures won't become reminders of what we used to have.