WHO IS REDSKEETER?

It's my "nom de photo," mostly so I don't get my real job confused with what I like to do.

My background: I grew up in Florida before it became another California and was a hunter and fisherman for years. Now, I just fish and hunt with a camera.

I guess it took a while to realize what I really liked about hunting was the woods and watching the game, not actually 'whacking' one of the critters... Ah, wisdom or revelation or whatever it is, comes later in life. If ever.

I've been around for a few (some would say a lot of) years, and I have an MBA, that makes me officially, "The Man."

Like quite a few of the photographers I have met, I started out working in the IT world turning ideas into reality. Guess I just like creating things.

I learned photography when there was only one pro SLR, the Nikon F, and only B&W or Kodachrome. I did a lot of darkroom work and shot for my university on the photo staff for a couple of years using top of the line Nikons and Hasselblads.

On graduation, I put down the camera gear and didn't pick it up until 1997

It has become one of those hobbies that has gotten seriously out of hand!

TRAVEL

Traveling around the world made me realize that Mark Twain was really right when he observed "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

People are the same everywhere, mostly good, a few bad apples, and politicians.

And yes, Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers for his erudition and powers of observation of mankinds foibles.

I think the big eye openers for me were my first trip to Europe and my trips to Africa.

Africa taught me why man invented the spear and finally the A bomb; there are some verrry scary things in those things in the weeds that want to eat you!

Europe taught me the USA is not the only civilized nation.

Alaska taught me the value of a wilderness that you can enjoy without the beneft of "your fellow man." It's great to be in a place as large as the contintental USA but with about 1/289 of the population.

TOO MUCH ART, TOO LITTLE $$$

Too bad photography is so much like all art: too much art, too few bucks to make a living out of it (except for a lucky few). It would be a great way to make a living... if you could make a living.

Oh, the Redskeeter thing? It's taken from my red Skeeter bass boat.

EQUIPMENT

I shoot all Canon equipment now. I rely on the 1Ds mark II for incredible detail and just got the 1D Mark II N for action shots.

I have been 100 percent digital for about 5 years. Lenses are mostly the 100-400 and 600 mm IS L models; I use the 24-70 for landscapes.

I previously used Nikon F5's, a Fuji 680, and 'Blads.

I print on an Epson 4000 with genuine Epson Inks (I tried 3rd pary, not satisfied with the color and hassle) and use custom printer profiles.

So you can recognize yours truly at the next black-tie affair, here I am in the field, err ditch, after some elusive wild critter or other. (I am the first one on right.)

You know, this photography thing is really FUN! You get up every day at 4 or 5 am, go out, get wet, frozen... and stay until after dark.

And then call it a "Vacation" when you are done.

Photo courtesy of Ron Day, Good guy to call if you are planning wedding in NC, http://www.dayimages.com

Here is the roaming gnome in Alaska, mixing salmon fishing with bear shooting.

Bears at Silver Salmon Lodge were so numerous that we kept having to shake off salmon we hooked to keep the bears from associating us with food.

Smart idea, yea. Photo courtesy of Bill Wadsworth.

Is my butt really "that wide?" Naah, just the waders.