About Lawrence
Greetings! The photographs on my site represent the convergence of my strongest passions: My love of nature, my fondness for travel, and the artistic and technical challenge of recording the scene in front of my lens in such a way that you might feel some of the emotion I felt when I looked with my own eyes and decided to trip the shutter.
My interest in nature photography stems from my passion for nature. From a young age I enjoyed camping, hiking, and any activity that might get me closer to the natural world. Once I had the means to travel, as often as I could I'd visit some of the world's most beautiful places. A camera is a natural companion on these adventures, and over time I naturally moved from snapshots with inexpensive instamatics, to learning photography as art, using high-end SLRs.
In the not-so-distant past, when travel was difficult, expensive, and even dangerous, nature photographers played an important role in land conservation, raising awareness of a natural beauty worth preserving, even if it could only be visited by a privileged few. Today, almost any American with the inclination, and many citizens of the world, may find the means to visit the crown jewels of our National Park System. I am alarmed, however, in the level of apathy I perceive here in the United States. In any national park I feel I'm more likely to hear German or Japanese spoken by passers-by than English. Not that I would ever discourage anyone from any country to visit these parks, in fact I applaud these cultures that they would place such a high value on these places to make such a trip. I'd like to see more Americans appreciating these parks. A side effect of our much-touted American Democracy is that if not enough people are interested in nature, then the protection of nature will erode.
I don't imagine myself an important steward of our parks in the way some legendary photographers have become. I do hope, however, that if enough people like me show enough photographs, that the perceived value of our natural world will increase just enough that preservation and conservation may remain top priorities of our society.
Thanks for reading.