We live in a tumultuous time. It is all too easy to look around us and at every turn see tragedies of all shades. The growth of cheap mass media in television and the Internet have made it easy for us to tune into the world around us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Lately, it has been deeply discouraging to absorb this constant feed of suffering. War, hunger, tsunamis, hurricanes, religious fighting, bird flu, AIDS, wildfires, corruption, terrorism, the list goes on. The issues our world is facing are very real and deeply affecting. They deserve and demand our urgent attention. These issues, and more, require us to act with both our heads and our hearts. It is clearly evident that the troubles of the world cannot be lifted without the works of the competent, and yet I believe the greatest hope lies in the works of the compassionate. More than anything, I believe in and give full body to not only the darkness of man, but also our light. I believe only through compassion, generosity, understanding, forgiveness, and restraint can we fully realize the beauty of our potential and peace for the suffering.

Let us also be mindful of the natural world around us. Let us be reminded that we are the guardians of our world and as such do our best to not only enjoy it, but to care for it. It is my hope that we can reflect on the fact that our world is indeed beautiful and intricate in all its glorious details, and that it is very much worth protecting and finding pleasure with. Being both guardians and citizens of our earth, it is my hope that our actions are both nurturing and compassionate.

Photography for me is more than technical. Photography is a deeply personal interest. Photography is my voice in expressing my impressions of the world around me. It is my highest hope and dream that I use this "voice" in the service of making a more loving world. Many people feel that the camera often can be a fence between the photographer and their subject, but I view it as a tool that allows me to engage people more intensely than I might otherwise. For me photography at it's highest form allows me to have a deeper interaction with those that I might only come to know for a few moments in time. To help celebrate that mysteriously wonderful thing that happens when a camera is raised between a photographer and the person being photographed, I have included within the captions of some photos a personal commentary. My hope is that the commentary, along with the pictures, can help give you a more complete understanding of the people in them as well as to help you come to know me better not only as a photographer, but as a person.