The first 35mm pictures I ever took were landscape photos. They were taken with a relatively inexpensive "focus free" camera I picked up at a store in the summer of 1995, when I decided it was time to upgrade from the old Kodak Instamatic to something that felt a little less amateurish. The subjects of those photos weren't particularly memorable - a few views down and across the street from my house, a few shots of the backyard, and a few sections of road in the more rural areas of my then hometown of Mesquite, Texas. Nothing from those very early film rolls showed the promise of anything better to come. After working at it a little bit, though, I did manage to turn out a few reasonably good shots of outdoor scenes. Except for the New Orleans pictures, taken during a four-day visit in 2003 around the time of JazzFest, most of these were taken in and around the Dallas area from 1995 to 1996.

After a while, I began to lose interest in outdoor scenes and started to focus my attention and efforts toward photographing people, which is still my preference today. I very rarely indulge in landscape-style photography anymore, as I prefer the more visceral impact of human subjects. When I do shoot outdoor scenes, it is most likely to be while I am on a trip somewhere or when I need a photograph of something specific. Nevertheless, I have managed to get a few shots over the years that I'm still fairly pleased with.

Still lifes are not a usual thing for me, but every now and then I will happen upon a scene that looks like it would make a good photograph. If I have my camera with me, and a suitable film loaded, I will shoot it. If not, then there is always the next time. Still lifes have made up a very small percentage of photos I've taken over the years, as they are usually not all that interesting to me as subjects. They lack both the human touch and the primordial attractiveness of the great outdoors. Because the main appeal of still lifes lies in the contrast and composition of the shot, I've almost never photographed them in color.