After finishing my early education at Richard M. Nixon Elementary School, I went on to graduate from Fullerton Union High School—a few miles from my home in Yorba Linda, California. I was always drawn toward visual arts. Even though I knew nothing about photography, I realized I wanted to be a photographer. In 1967 I enlisted into the Army asking to be a war photographer. The Recruiter told me, “We don’t need any photographers, but we could train you to jump out of planes and blow shit up.” I said okay and signed the papers.
I landed in the middle of Vietnam in February 1968 assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a Combat Engineer. I took snapshots with my little 16mm Minolta during my two tours. Those old grainy photos still resonate with me today.
In the early 90s, as a small businessman, the camera became my marketing tool of choice, but photography became my passion. After retiring at 55, I blissfully spent countless hours studying the art, learning how to make my camera accurately capture what I was seeing, honing my skills and turning some images into my own art pieces. Sharing my photographs with you is my reward.