Images

September 3, 1995 - Skyed out in my hang glider 60 mi from take off

I got my first hang glider in my senior year in high school. I would run down grassy hills in the park, never flying but I knew I was cool! One day, everything just happened so and I flew a few feet high for twenty yards or so and it scared me, bad. I wanted to fly and there I was doing it but I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to fly like the guys at Shaw Butte but I didn’t want to get hurt or die. I sold my hang glider after that. I joined the Army and was stationed in Hawaii.. I learned to soar while in Hawaii. I bought a glider after taking lessons and really got good at it. 

I came home to AZ and learned fly in the desert climbing up thermals and going on glide looking for another thermal, climb up to the clouds, glide. If I was halfway up to the clouds, I flew the clouds, halfway or below, I flew the thermal triggers from the ground. On this flight, I took off from Mingus Mountain, climbed and glided, over and over. At this point I got the camera out and took a quick shot and put it back in my harness. This flight got me third place in the 50 mile class of our annual cross country contest. At sixty miles, I was now in the 100 mile class. It’s quite a boring flying story and that’s ok, I like keeping the excitement controlled and boring, not scary. This was one of my best flights. I think it was 3 hours in the air and 13,500’ at my highest point. I landed alone and broke my glider down, putting it away in the bag. My ride picked me up, I was flying with Len, a news helicopter pilot for Cannel 12 (that is a whole other story) and we went to a saloon in Seligman and celebrated.

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November 7, 2025, undisclosed location Dine’ Reservation - Mother of Game

This place was heavy. It was very exciting for me to visit, literally way out there, a long way away from everything. Heavy in that I was vibed for sharing my pictures (no location ID) online, misinterpreted in my disgust for identifying non native defacement and impact. I’ll be back to visit and photograph places near here. This was far more impactful on my presence in sharing my love for indigenous peoples art than any other Tapamveni that I have photographed to date.

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October 2025 Phoenix, AZ No Kings Protest

October 18, 2025 ~ Nikon D780 - Nikkor 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 G

This is a new to me lens that I bought for indoor rock pictures of my son’s band. I knew it was going to be good for close quarters as well. I had two cameras with me this day, an F100 and D780. I had been primarily shooting with film but I had the D780 out and walked up on this couple. I recognized the light on the gentleman and captured it without any pose. It is one of my favorites.

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Tohatchi + T’iis Tsoh Sikaad Chapter, Dine’ Reservation

January 30, 2025 - iPhone 16 Pro 24mm f1.78

Dine’ Reservation, a story behind the photograph, this one never used, the ghost in the photo (road) was not intended. 

I’m always trying to capture the beauty of our land. I travel by car and often I will photograph the roads we use to get to where we want to go. This one is across the Dine’ Reservation in New Mexico, on my way to the San Juan River for a little fishing. I brought the FE2 with me on this trip and managed a few good photographs, this was not one of them

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The Copenhavor Castle on Camelback Mountain

August 27, 2025 - Nikon FE2 - Nikkor ED IF 300mm f2.8

I love the area that I live in. Camelback Mountain, always in my view. I’ve stood on its summit many times sometimes waiting for the sun rise on the first day of the New Year. I’ve circumnavigating it on a bike, camping on it as a young teenager complete with a campfire. I’ve climbed it direct, straight up off trail, built forts on it and always look up to it. It was an early playground of mine. I taught myself to climb here and I did it with a rope, climbing the Monk with a couple of friends, climbing it solo too. Anyway, the Copenhaver Castle has always been THE house, the king of Camelback. 

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…on the way back from church.

April 20, 2024 - iPhone 11 Pro 23mm f2.2

I’m not sure what year I started camping in Glen Canyon. At least thirty six years ago. I don’t know how many people I have directly introduced to this place over the years, quite a few, more than I know, a lot more now that I think of it.

I would camp with hang gliding friends on top of a big mountain around the campfire. I think it was about 1990 that my friend Mike Markgraf began to tell me about Lees Ferry. We flew and fished together and he kept telling me about the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. I finally took a week off and we went upriver and camped.

It was epic.

I don’t think I’ve missed a year since.

When I take friends, I don’t really fish. We stack a big pile of firewood, hang out around the fire ring and burn it. My buddy Robert seems to think I bring too much. I don’t listen to him. Funny, the guides up there know me by name. You can only get to our spot by boat or helicopter. That’s the way I like it. The group you see here, I think we are on our six or seventh consecutive year. It doesn’t matter. Last time this young kid backhauled us upriver. I asked him to tell us some stories. To this day I can’t figure if he was just making stuff up. He talked about a native sheep farmer that lowered his flock down into the grassy slopes. Sometimes a lie is better than the real thing. Fucking Otis the lying river guide, I’ll never forget that.

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An unnamed stream near the Mogollon Rim, AZ

June 25, 2022 - iPhone 11 Pro 13mm f2.4

I have been fly fishing nearly my whole life. I also flew a hang glider for a long time but I knew it was dangerous and after so many of my friends dying, I decided to dedicate myself to it. For a while, I was fishing crazy. I simply shared my love of it through the Internet. I became really good at it and travelled doing it. I fished the stream | river | lake | sea with my fly rods and created web sites on it early on in the timeline of the internet.

Fly fishing took me to Japan and I was taught fly fishing Japanese style with the experts. I wrote about them, I worked with them. I helped a young man here in the states spread the love of this type of fishing far and wide. We did a good job. But I found an ugly side of it, people. The funny thing is, I go fishing to escape the ugliness of man to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Recently, I stepped away from writing about it. I should have done that sooner but it was still a good decision. I’m in a much better place just making my own blog about what ever it is that makes me happy. Fly fishing makes me happy! Alone or with a friend.

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Shacks on Dirt Avenue, Rocky Point, Mexico

February 24, 2025 - Nikon F3 - Nikkor 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 AI-S - Fuji Provia 100

I have travelled to Sonora, Mexico since I was in my teens, like 16. It was one of my first drives out of state. I wanted to be a professional surfer and the Sea of Cortex was four hours away. It’s a place where the Altair desierto meets the sea. Intense hot dry desert and that alone can generate wind not to mention the local “chubascos” that drive up the sea and curve inland. That wind on the water creates waves, so guess who used to surf down there in the early eighties? 

Surfing turned to fly fishing the beaches in the nineties and kite surfing in the two thousands. I got to know some of the panga captains. I used to fly fish from the small skiffs out of the port. In the between times fishing or playing with our kites, our dollar was strong against their peso and the Mexicans had shops on the dirt road to Sandy Beach. We affectionately called the shops “Shacks” a sarcastic comparison to Saks Fith Ave, or Shacks on Dirt Ave.

Recently submitted to the Nikonians contest, this picture was one of the finalists. It was one of my first images through my F3 and a travel lens, the 28-85mm.

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Lavidge Building and Altocumulus

September 4, 2025 Nikon FG (Shiny) - Nikon Series E 28mm f2.8 AI-S - Fuji Velvia 50

I took a gamble with a roll of Velvia 50. This was from a camera that I had sourced online, a shiny Nikon FG, a 40+ year old camera that I had no idea if the shutter worked properly or the internal electronics still functioned to adjust the aperture. I cleaned the camera up and loaded the film. This picture was from a daily carry and the opportunity from having my camera on hand. Taken on or about the first week in September, our local weather pattern still contains monsoon moisture. I had also just acquired a lens that has an opinionated view of its performance. Some even saying to avoid it while others applaud it. I don’t blindly trust public opinion and it appeared to be a nice and inexpensive wide angle lens so I used it until I finished the roll. Needless to say I really like this lens and it is still mounted.

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Mar de Cortez, Mil Puntos de Luz

November 5, 2024 iPhone 16 Pro 24mm f1.78

It was George H. W. Bush that made the term popular during his , “One thousand points of light” campaign trail of speeches. He used it again, I believe for his nomination acceptance speech. I remember some of my peers talking about, “new age bullshit” but from what I remember, the president was speaking about the army of volunteers helping our country, the helpers, the bi-partisan efforts in the service of our great country… We were so innocent then in comparison to now.

But the Sea of Cortez is one of legend and on this beautiful day, the sun was shimmering on the water. I’ve fished here quite a bit from the beaches. My friend, S.Brooks Bedwell tagging along with his F3 back in the day. I would get these slides back from him of me standing on a thousand points of light. It really was cool to capture them on my own.

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Rochester Panel

May 1, 2025 Nikon F3 - Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S - Fuji Velvia

Detail from the Rochester Panel just outside from Emery, Utah. I had been planning this trip for some time and the detail from this petroglyph panel is mind twisting. This rock art panel was made thousands of years ago. I drove 9 hours into Utah to reach it and this is just one photograph from one of three cameras.

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35mm Film: Red Rock Road Door #1

July 29, 2025 Nikon FG - Nikkor 50mm f1.8 (JP pancake ver.) Ilford HP5+

I enjoy making a lap after work, dreaming of owning a home on this road. This is a garage door, I’ve seen it prior to the enclosure, literally excavated out of the side of the mountain. What car would I choose to park in it? A 911 GT3 RS or an 849 Testarosa or a Ghost? Perhaps a Batmobile would be a choice to run to the Stand to get a burger.

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The Weatherford Hotel, Flagstaff, Arizona 

August 28, 2025 - Nikon FG (Shiny) - Nikkor 35-70mm f3-3-4.5 AI-S - Fuji Velvia 50

This is THE first image through the Shiny FG, my back-up every day camera. I risked a roll of Velvia 50 through it and it paid off. The camera electronics don’t kick in until the 1 shows up on the frame counter. I’ve been trying to guess settings on the fly and this is what came out. This is image two, the fist is the half image from the film take up. I should have posted that one as I’m not telling the exact truth about this being the first image, actually it’s the first whole image.

I took some nice nature photographs as well as some landscapes up on top of Agassiz peak, the top of the lift at Snow Bowl. Those images although very nice, lack character, sort of a prerequisite to making it on this page.

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Me and my bedroom mirror, image by my Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S

April 28, 2025 - Nikon D780 - Nikkor 15mm f3.5 AI-S

For so long I’ve wanted this lens. It is absolutely the most interesting lens I own. The most I’ve spent (don’t ask) and I love it. But it’s not my favorite, not by a long shot. At heart, I’m a skateboarder. I still own one, but I don’t ride it, I’m far too brittle for that but I’m still a skater. Back in the day, this was a lens that I saw a bunch of shots through in skateboarding magazines.

I had to have one and saved and saved, boom, got one for real.

I took the only photograph that I have enlarged and framed, hung on the wall in my home with it. This lens is such a cantankerous beauty, but it’s mine and I love it but far from a first choice. It’s not a fish eye, it’s a cat eye lens like my cat George who I love and am mad at, both at the same time. George shits in my favorite spots in my house because my wife is mine and I won’t let him sleep on the bed with her. I won’t let him in my room because he shits by my cameras. So fuck George, he is banned. What an asshole. Sorry, what was I saying? Oh, see the blue blob in the upper left of the photo?