I am a retired physician and scientist who has been photographing with intent since I was a young boy. My grandfather, Peter Koch, was a legendary naturalist, film maker, and photographer of the Big Bend country from the 1940s through the 70s, and my favorite reward every summer vacation was the opportunity to spend time with him in the field with a Leica rangefinder camera and one roll of Kodachrome with 36  exposures.

My intent was clear: Impress my grandfather who was slow to praise!

We would awake well before twilight, he would help me hurry through a bowl of bran flakes and a glass of orange juice, then we would climb into his 1965 white, 2-door, Plymouth and begin the long drive to The Park. I don't recall napping, but there was little conversation and certainly no small-talk. I learned to be very comfortable with silence. When we arrived, usually on the upper Tornillo Creek drainage, I would be told the proper f/ stop and shutter speed; it was assumed I remembered how operate the camera and hold it steady from our excursion last year. Camera in hand, it was now my INTENT to find an interesting subject and experiment with where to stand, before taking a photograph that I intended to be beautiful.

Sadly, I don't recall his critique. The film would go in the mail to Rochester, NY before we left Alpine but he would review and forward the yellow box to be reviewed once home in Houston. No doubt a few of those images may be mixed in with the Peter Koch collection at the Archives of the Big Bend, Sul Ross University, Alpine.

Those times have passed and my equipment has grown along with the evolution of the mechanics of photography. No loading of plates with 5x7 film. No limited rolls of 35mm film, 36 shots per roll.  Such concepts as precise control of exposure and push-pull processing have been simplified and automated. LightRoom can accomplish what the dark room could never aspire to. There are no toxic chemicals to mix and hold at a steady temperature and printing extra copies once a combination of exposure, chemical activity, and temperature had achieved a perfectly balanced image. What has remained has been my intent to create beautiful images.

I am always excited by another opportunity to photograph wild and natural places. I find my greatest strengths lie in the exploration the relationship between a natural subject which is juxtaposed against a background that is interesting in its own right. The innate beauty in the natural forms and topography of our world, enveloped by atmosphere and greenery provide great inspiration, and I enjoy the challenges that these natural scenes pose as I try to impose order and meaning on a disordered environment. Changing point of view can yield exciting prints. Ansel Adams famously had a platform atop his station wagon to give him a higher elevation and different point of view. I like pushing the camera close to the earth for a difference in perspective.

 I should admit that not all Art is about expressing 'beauty' and sometimes what is impactful is what is uncomfortable or discordant. I don't seek out discordant images but they do sometimes impose themselves on me.

 Great art produced by a photographer requires as much skill as a great landscape painting. The painter must learn to prepare his paints and develop his brushwork as well as understand principals of design in order to master his medium. The photographer has only to push the button. Ah, but the trick is where to stand! And while the mastery of the relationship between film speed and push-processing is no longer ever discussed, fostering the talent to operate post-processing tools is just as artful a mastery.

 For inspiration I have especially looked to the photographic work of Eliot Porter, Jim Bones, and David Muench, all masters of composition and dark-room 'post processing.' How I longed for the skill and equipment to achieve dye transfer prints!

 When exploring fine art museums, I gravitate towards Landscape Paintings, especially those of the Dutch Golden Age and Hudson River School. The work of Albert Bierstadt offers many inspiring images, and examining his works for compositional techniques is always a joy.

I am self-taught but highly experienced with 60+ years of practice behind the camera aspiring to take pretty pictures. As a young photographer, I was raised on S-curves and the rule-of-thirds. But those rules slowly faded into hinted guidelines as I learned to follow my instincts: It felt good when I found the right subject-background relationship and those photos were inevitably my favorite, even if they had no s-curve.

Film wasn't "free" in the 80s, unlike the virtually unlimited storage with today's cameras and SD cards. But in those days it was easy to take advantage of local promotions, though, which made shooting two or three rolls of film a day more affordable. I would shoot multiple compositions of the same subject and then carefully review the resulting prints and choosing the best. Winnowing the pile of prints down to a few dozen, I would pass these out to various non-photographer friend reviewers. "Pick your favorite six," I would ask. I can think of no better way to get critical review.

The greatest improvement in my 'hit-rate' has come with the expansion of my 'artistic armamentarium.' Today, I tend to prioritize diagonals and perpendiculars, expanding the geometric rules I can utilize. I better understand the harmonies between colors, the relationships between forms, and the role of contrast and luminosity, and I better appreciate the value that a deliberate choice of aspect ratio can make on a photo. As I work with these elements in post-processing they became more important elements in my field-work. For example, knowing that gold and blue are direct compliments can help me focus with more selective intent. Changing my electronic viewfinder to restrict the image to a 16:9 format helps me to compose better with that format and can give a different apparent perspective.

 My hope is that my work expands the variety of views associated with the Big Bend region. Travel magazines, and even many coffee-table books, focus on a handful of money shots: Casa Grande, The Window, South Rim, Santa Helena, Hot Springs Canyon and Sierra del Carmen, and the Balanced Rock in Grapevine Hills, of course. There are others but these trophy shots are only one side of Big Bend.