Stay up to date with my news and travels
Mountain Sweet Pitcher Flower
To know the Southern Appalachian Mountains is to know its plants. This I hold true. So, to know its rare plants is especially important, to me. They are quite literally the little things; the details. A few years ago, friend and photographer, Susan Stamey,...
Waterfall Chattooga Watershed
This waterfall is an old friend. I visit every time I'm in the area. It represents outoor adventure for me. I wasn't even twenty when I moved to South Carolina from the suburbs of Washington D.C. I quickly became aware of the Wild & Scenic Chattooga River, and...
Waterfall Rainbow
I was having a conversation with friend and photographer, Jim McGovern, during a recent photography adventure in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. He was telling me about his draw towards--and passion for--the wide open spaces of the desert southwestern United...
Spring Trees Blue Ridge Parkway
Visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is always special. It's a place of mountain streams, lush green growth, diversity. But, it's also an incredibly busy National Park, borderd by towns that are comical in their loud shouting for attention and...
Southern Appalachian Mossy Waterfall
Some places just stick with me. I think about them, often long after I visit them. There's more to the place than I was able to convey; better ways to show them. I know that return trips will be required. Brainstorms on what needs to be subtracted and what needs...
Long Creek Reflections
I jumped the gun a bit on my spring adventures along the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment. Arriving in early to mid-April, the landscape hadn't yet greened with new growth. I was early. Nature was late. Doesn't matter. Either way, things weren't quite ready. But I...
Copper Maidenhair Fern
"If an element of nature is somehow allowing us to access something bigger, that is its spiritual component made manifest. It awards us a glimpse of the unseen." --Rick Rubin, The Creative Act Maidenhair Ferns are a bit of a personal obession of mine, at least for...
Virginia Bluebell Spring Ephemerals
I love to photograph the annual Virginia Bluebell bloom along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. I think, for me, it's about what they represent. I'm usually fresh off travels to the Southern Appalachian Mountains, eyes and nose full of memories of pollen and...
Photo Journal Jocasse Gorges Spring 2025
March 2025Jocassee GorgesSouth Carolina / Early Spring / MountainsAs late winter wanes and early spring comes on, I usually make an annual trip to the base of the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment, South Carolina. I'm in search of spring ephemerals, the rare and...
Bloodroot Bud Opening
While on photo adventure, we found ourselves on the leading edge of the first wave of spring ephemerals. I worried, as the guide, walking into a rich cove of potential botanical treasures, that we might not see much of anything. My timing was based on similar trips...
Maidenhair Fern Juvenile Shoot
From my journal (March 2025): Where are the Maidenhair Ferns? I'm anxious to see and photograph the new, juvenile shoots, subjects behind my lens that have become a large part of my spring ephemeral experience. Last season's ferns lay limp across the steep slopes...
Blushing Oconee Bell Wildflower with Raindrops
The Oconee Bell is more than a wildflower for me. It's a symbol of sorts. When I was eighteen I made a choice to move to South Carolina. Clemson University was one of the few that accepted and welcomed me. It was there that this diminutive, rare wildflower was...
Pink Hepatica Spring Ephemeral
There's a wave of energy that passes through the forest in early spring. It awakens a class of wildflowers known as spring ephemerals. These wildflowers employ a unique strategy of early, small and quick. They are the first adopters of sunlight energy; the fast...
Pea Island NWR Sand Pattern
I let the real-time conditions determine my shooting schedule and direction in place. This type of responsive strategy forces me to always adapt, to be flexible. It keeps the actual practice of landscape photography less bullish and more like a dance, I think. The...
Snow Jennettes Fishing Pier
There’s snow in the overnight forecast. It’s coming from the south. What? Is this something that actually happens? We wake on the morning of January 22nd with no real plans. We—my mother (also a photographer) and I—just want to see snow on the beach. In all the...