I've been taking snapshots since a young kid and began to consider myself a photographer in high school. In recent years I've been more and more willing to claim that as part of who I am. My dad was the family photographer and I think I got interested because of him. Nice.

I often see such varied, stunning, I-must-grab-my-camera beauty; such incredible, there-is-a-God awe-fullness; and, simply, just really cool stuff and I enjoy capturing it on digital film. And, as you know, those gasp-for-breath moments are not only found in what we might typically think of as beautiful, but also found in the mundane and even in what we might normally consider as anything but. I learn about the world and about myself while looking with those open eyes. I love recording the parts of my world that I've noticed and appreciate/wonder about/want to remember. That I can later share my vision with interested others is icing.

I especially like taking shots of people and creating composite images by extracting the person from one scene and placing it on a new background, usually one of my nature or abstract images.

I love, maybe the most, shooting friends and then, hopefully, creatively reflecting back their joy; sadness; grace; silliness; eros; beauty; dignity; humanity...all of who we are at any given moment in time. Aways happy to have willing participants and collaborators on the other side of the lens, to dance together in fun and interesting ways. Wanna play?

I hope you'll enjoy these images and would love to hear/read your comments, be they praising or lovingly critical. Please keep coming back to visit. I will continue to upload additonal images that represent the variety of genres that interest me — People, Travel, the Natural World (especially flowers), Nudes and Eros, Abstracts, my Friends and my Golden Retriever.

Say: "Schmendeman!"

Ritch