taking photos

I started taking photos at the end of high school. My dad had a black and white darkroom which I worked with, and later took with me to college. In my sophomore year, a returning Vietnam vet sold me a brand-new in-the-box Nikon F for $225, and shortly afterwards, my father gave me his Leica M3 range finder. With these, I was off and running. Originally it was all black and white, but I soon discovered Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides, and stayed with that until I went digital in the early 2000s.

The photographs in my collection go back 50 years. I was able to digitally scan my earlier slides and black and whites with an old Nikon CoolScan IV. The last of my black and whites were done in China in 1988, and I have since been doing only color. I have stayed with Nikon since my early days, and currently use a Nikon D7100, and occasionally my iPhone.

My collection is diverse, but you can see that my interest in nature photography is forefront. The fine-arts photographer Jackie Mathey called me, as a compliment, a street photographer. I shoot quickly, usually once per scene. I am quite happy with the galleries Portfolio, Kenya, China, Japan, Grasslands, as well as the various galleries in Trees, Leaves, Water and Grass. If I had to choose one collection, I think my three galleries of Grass achieve my deepest photographic ambitions.

I am indebted to the European and American photographers of 1930 to 1980 who, through their books, have nourished my appreciation of composition, light, black and white, and color. And who, by their example, have encouraged me to put together my own collections.

Please take your time and explore these galleys. My professional photo-comrade Barrett Rudich advised, “Jake, I know these are ALL your CHILDREN, but trust me: honing these down, will mean that the selects that remain will have much more impact. Truth.”

Sadly, it’s been hard to ditch so many of my children.

Boulder, Colorado, 2019.