I was born in Denver, Colorado, and spent the first three years of my life in Texas. From then on I have lived in the Twin Cities area, except when I was a guest of the U S Air Force for four years during the Korean War. I have three sons, 7 grandchildren (the youngest was born on 10-18-04) and 3 great-granddaughters. Rose brought two daughters and one son into my life in 1988 after a car accident took my first wife in 1985, and we have two granddaughters and a grandson from her youngest daughter.

My interest in photography began in the 1940's and my first camera was an Ansco 616. I still have it and it is in good working condition. I then graduated to 35mm and a Konica camera system. I still have that also! From there I went to a Minolta 9000 Autofocus, which I gave to Rose .In fact, I had three of them, along with two zooms, 28mm, 100mm macro, and a 400mm. On our Alaska trip, we had the misfortune of losing two 9000 bodies and a 7000 body, due to malfunctions. This resulted in a purchase of a new Canon EOS 3 system with a 28 - 105 IS zoom, 100 - 400 IS zoom, a 180 Macro and a 1.5 teleconverter. Quite a change! Two years ago I took the plunge and purchased a new Canon D1 Mark II, and I am really enjoying useing and learning how to operate it. I joined PSA in 1991, received my APSA in 2000 and have again started to compete Internationally. I currently have 3 stars in the EID Division, 3 stars in the Nature Division, 3 stars in Color Projected Division, and 2 stars in Small Color Prints.

My computer is a Dell 3.2 Ghz with an 80 Gig hard drive and a 21" Dell CRT. I have a supplemental 250 gig USB hard drive. I have a Nikon 5000 Super Cool Scan film and slide scanner along with an Epson 636 flatbead scanner.

I belong to four clubs here in the Twin Cities area, the 3M Camera Club (3MCC), Minnesota Nature Photography Club (MNPC), the Twin Cities Digital Imaging Group (TCDIG), and the St. Paul Camera Club (SPCC). I have held all offices in the 3MCC and was editor of their newsletter for seven years. I was the editor for the MNPC for four years and Secretary for two years, and Treasurer for the past eight years. In my spare time, I was also active in the Twin Cities Area Council of Camera Clubs and was their newsletter editor for 10 years.

I retired in October, 1994 from the 3M Company after 28 great years in their Information Technology Division. Upon retiring, I thought I would have a lot of time on my hands, so I took up woodworking and built a great woodworking shop that now resides in the basement of our new town house. Just a small one...only 5 bedrooms, three baths, 2 fire places and a lot of room for me to get lost in. I enjoy woodworking very much. It seems the computer and four camera clubs take up much of my spare time. I only get two or three projects built in the course of a year. Oh yes, I do manage to take a few images every now and then!.