I'm a born optimist, believe in self-reliance and trust life. Challenges are a good thing; it's in my nature to whistle in the dark and move forward. The making of art is a great pleasure but it can make for an uncertain financial future. As a result I pursued a more conventional career but I never quit thinking about and making art. I lived in Miami, Florida, until I followed a good man and my heart to a farm in the heartland. Stretch and grow! It was a great gift that allowed me to discover, or more accurately, to rediscover my passion in creating images.
I now have the creative joy of telling peoples' stories in photographs and paintings. In addition to being the resident photographer and portraitist at Light Pixie Studio, I do post production and retouching, as well as the business side of planning, marketing, sales, bookkeeping, IT and hairpulling too. For too many years it was intimidating to launch my own business. Having success at it has made me eager for bigger challenges. It is my own venture and it reflects what I like to do and how I see the world!
Life seen through the lens of a camera or brushing color is exciting and inspiring. People remark that my images—photographs and paintings—are lively and realistic, and that the subject’s eyes appear to see!
The biggest rewards come from smiles of those who say I've captured their personal stories in my work.
The Husky is now in its winter hangar and we dislike having to drive so far to enjoy flying Fire Horse. The hangar is dark and cold but the runway is long and plowed, so it’s the responsible thing to do. Good judgment is smart! Minimize Risk Most of us have an intuitive understanding of […]
Looking forward when you’ve lived more than one hundred years! If you have good genes and reasonable health, your age is just a number. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, centenarian plus eight For the last twenty years of her remarkable life, I was special assistant and friend to Marjory Stoneman Douglas who wrote the book on the […]
What pilots (and others) do for summertime fun! A summertime Fly In is a wonderful thing We’ve been to two of them in the past month. The Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association are two of the largest advocacy groups working to keep general aviation healthy and vibrant, protecting your* freedom to fly. This […]
The largest paddlesports gathering in the world takes place each March–this year just as winter suddenly switched places with spring. For kayak, canoe, outdoor equipment and clothing enthusiasts, all those who’re interested in learning to select, purchase and use the gear, this is the weekend for 20,000 vendors and consumers to gather at the Alliant Center in […]
This flight really happened and in just this way, but no camera was there to shoot it! Photoshop to the rescue . . . It took eight separate photos composited with lots of lighting and perspective adjustments along with added elements to create the scene after the fact. Happy Birthday, Photoshop! This month Photoshop, the […]
This is the last photographic installment from last summer’s travels across America and the final images from my old but reliable camera. After three years of considering the options, my L-lenses are mounted on a new Canon 5D Mark iii. It’s love at first shutter click! As an official farewell to my old EOS XTi, here’s a look […]
Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Wilderness, a secret place that draws us in and renews the spirit. Root Ranch in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is hard to find on the map and even harder to visit. Once it was a rustlers’ hideout and there are still no roads, just pack trails […]
Grand Teton, highest peak in the Teton Range One hundred miles north of Afton, Wyoming, is Grand Teton National Park which shares its northern border with Yellowstone NP. The peak for which the park is named, Grand Teton–at 13,776′ (4,199 m), is the highest peak in the Teton Range and the second highest after Gannett in […]
Good news! I’m smiling! Today I received the flippie from The American Surveyor where FIVE of my photographs were published as part of this month’s cover story, “Arrows Across America.” It was an adventure fulfilled to land at Medicine Bow, Wyoming, and then to explore what was left of the original beacon tower and generator shack. As […]
Afton, Wyoming, may be small but it’s the biggest little town in the Star Valley Exhausted Mormon travelers emerged from the Lander Cutoff and settled in the Star Valley to build their futures. At fewer than 2,000 people in the 2010 census, Afton is the largest town among Smoot, Thane, and Etna strung along U.S. […]
A New Life in the West We left the westward bound emigrants outside of Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, as they struggled through rutted and rough terrain, the stone monuments of Nebraska’s panhandle. Weeks of burden and drudge later, having buried weaker members beside the trail, their provisions were low but they’d crossed South Pass at the […]
Giant arrows are for pointing the way! Once there were hundreds of giant arrows made of cement pointing the way across America, directing traffic for transcontinental airmail routes. In some wild, lonely places where the weeds grew faster than towns, the arrows remain, forlorn without fresh yellow paint, cracked and waiting to be rediscovered by […]
An airplane is a marvelous way to discover a place, to see its colors and contours in scale. It is a living geography textbook! We’ve just returned from three adventuring weeks flying our Husky west to learn America. Along the way we discovered Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff is an impressive natural feature in western Nebraska […]
It’s another year of wildfires in the American West, not unusual but headline grabbing for sure. We’ve just returned from our third annual trip to Afton, Wyoming, home of Aviat and birthplace of our very own Fire Horse Husky! And it’s the second year for smoky transits across Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. California makes […]
Nature can be fickle then turn on season’s dime to pay back for all the trouble. 2012 was a droughty year and when the rains finally came in July some benefitted while others were just a little too south or received just a little too little and late. Then came blazing September with fiery reds […]