While a Scoutmaster, I purchased a small camera to document some of my activities.  I actually learned photography the way Steven Spielberg did, from the Boy Scout Photography Merit Badge Book, photographing Scout Activities, and giving slide shows at  Courts of Honor.  I kept notes to document my pictures and the conditions under which they were taken, and my skill continually improved.

As a retirement activity I decided to move back home, hike trails, take pictures, and perhaps sell some.  It would keep me fit, my mind active, and provide something interesting to do. 

The photography classes I took at the Northern Virginia Community College showed me that there is much more to photography than just snapping pictures.  There is the ‘dark room' where the photo magic is really done.  Did you know that Ansel Adams did some of his best creative work in the dark room?  If his original image was close enough, but not quite perfect, he would fix it.

Ansel Adams used an enlarger, photo paper, and chemistry to work his magic, but today, we have  computers, scanners, and sophisticated software, a virtual digital dark room in which to work ‘magic'.  In a digital dark room, we can not only perform the traditional manipulations, but also specialized effects that cannot otherwise be easily done.

Consider the above image of myself on Mt. Willard overlooking Crawford Notch.  I enlarged the foreground two times, cloned trees over the distracting highway, and reduced the shadow of Mt. Willy.

I manipulate my own less than perfect images for fun and profit.  I can also fix up your images; and besides, I need something to do during periods of inclement weather, hunting season, and for the other times when I cannot be out there.