I always liked to draw and take pictures. I started with Jon Gnagy, a Kodak Instamatic camera, Venus Paradise color-by-numbers sets, and cheap oils with canvas boards. My attempts were not really met with enthusiasm. In my late teens I bought a Pentax manual camera and really enjoyed exploring ways that film speed, exposure, and aperture could work together to draw and focus attention. I took it seriously and was pleased with the output. As I developed and learned ways to improve, I stumbled on an article that suggested painting as a way to develop a better understanding artistic basics to make more interesting photography. I never looked back. In learning to paint and draw, I learned about composition and depth. I learned about values, color, and chroma. I realized that, to an extent, these were already naturally present in what was doing. Mostly, and through constant experimentation, I started to see how all these pieces used separately and together stimulate focus, mood, and emotion. But where photography can capture a profound or beautiful moment, it can only take us so far. Painting, to me, is a very enjoyable way of discovering deeper ways of expressing what something might be.