What I like most about photography is the challenge of capturing the subject: the lighting around it, the environment that supports it, and the fleeting moment in which it exists. My favorite photographers and my biggest influences knew the power of that fleeting moment, and they used their technical expertise to shape the lighting and the environments in their work. Photography isn't entirely about luck, but there's a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time.

Keeping those concepts in mind, I find the most satisfaction in taking photographs of subjects in their own world: I rarely make use of my makeshift, at-home studio. I have the most success (and indeed, the most fun) walking through cities or on nature trails. There, I can fit into the subject's own small world and, at least for a while, absorb the environment in which it exists.

I take pictures in both film and digital formats -- each photograph is noted by its medium. I haven't given up on film, as I find it still offers remarkable depth of color and atmosphere that can sometimes be difficult to obtain with digital devices. My primary film cameras include standard 35mm SLR, a plastic toy camera, and a fully-manual Yaschica-Mat LM twin-lens-reflex camera, built circa 1958. Every camera -- digital or flim, old or new -- has its own quirky personality.