Because my parents were missionaries we moved often during my early years. We lived on a farm in Aguascalientes, Mexico (where I was born), and then in Asuncion, Paraguay where I was cared for by Guarani Indian women. We eventually wound up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Everywhere we moved my parents subscribed to National Geographic Magazine, Life Magazine, Look Magazine, and Time.

These magazines provided me with a window on the rest of the world while I was growing up. Even before I could read I would devour the images and "visit" far away places. Such powerful pictures!

I wanted to create images like the ones I saw in the magazines.

When I turned fourteen, John and Jeanine Fulton became leaders of our church youth group. Professional photographers and graphic artists, they took our group on church retreats and brought along their Nikon cameras, showing us how to use them and then turning us loose to take pictures. They developed them on site and had us put together a three-projector multi-media slide show at the end of the weekend. That blew my mind!

When I was in a school play in my junior year in high school, John handed me his Nikon with a couple of rolls of film and said, "Go out and make great art!" I took pictures backstage, onstage, and from the auditorium. John developed and printed them and gave them to me to show my fellow students. I had made art!

Eventually I burned out in that job and went on to work in other fields - bookkeeping, job development, and administration. In the 1980s my wife Bridget and I began taking photography courses at Howard Community College in our new hometown of Columbia, MD. We had the great good fortune to come under the gentle, insightful tutelage of Jan Starr, head of the photography program. Jan taught us so much. Most importantly she inspired us to keep shooting.

Bridget and I began to plan all of our vacations around photography. We took pictures of: Williamsburg, VA, Shenandoah National Park, Washington DC, Maryland's Eastern Shore, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, London, Paris, Bermuda, Costa Rica, abandoned buildings along the side of the road, flowers, found objects, "studio still lifes" shot in our basement. I built a darkroom in our spare bathroom and we fought over who would have access to it to print.

I learned about digital imaging from Bruce Reid, my Electronics professor at Howard Community College, and wrote a term paper in 1988 for my technical writing class, about the future of electronic imaging.

Eventually, Bridget introduced me to Dorothea Chandler, who owns Chandler Designs, Ltd. here in Columbia. They had met while dog walking. Synchronicity! Dorothea does exquisite matting and framing in her shop. I finally got up the nerve to bring her some of my photographs and she taught me so much about how to present and market my images. Each framing session with her was a one-on-one tutorial in "seeing." Check out her site at cdlimited.com. Tell her I sent you!

But I had to wait ten year s to get a chance to learn digital imaging. Finally, I learned about the Community College of Baltimore County Computer Graphics program from fellow photographer Ruth Lloyd. I talked my way into the PhotoShop class taught by Hal Rummel, the coordinator of the Computer Graphics and Visual Communication department, despite the fact that I didn't know how to turn on the Apple computers in the lab. We almost drove each other crazy that semester as I sucked his brain dry trying in eight weeks to learn everything about digital imaging. If I could learn just half of what Hal has forgotten I would be a very knowledgeable person.

One afternoon, while gallery hopping with Bridget in the new Gallery Row in downtown Washington, DC I spotted a discreet sign that read "The Washington Center for Photography." Bridget and I climbed three flights of stairs and entered a magical world. We found a gallery, staffed entirely by volunteers who come from all walks of life but who share an absolute passion for photography. And such images! It was like entering the pages of Life Magazine combined with the best of National Geographic and Art Connoisseur. This was photography taken to the third power.

I immediately joined and became a volunteer at the center. As a volunteer I have met photographers from all over the world, learned how to hang shows, made many new friends, and seen images that sear my eyeballs! Such pictures!

In 1999 I moved to Key West, Florida and fell in love with the beautiful people and scenery here. I began photographing the people, sights, and events in the Keys and have also joined a wonderful Gospel Choir "The Blessed Community Gospel Choir."

I also started my own photography/digital-imaging company - BJShots.com This web site is my "portfolio/store." Please enjoy your visit to my virtual gallery. Come back often. Tell your friends about it. Send me an email about your reactions, to bj@bjshots.com.