My mom and dad did, while really close friends call me Annie.

Ann's backstory . . . I studied dance from the age of five.  My eyes learned to attend to form and line, while my body was immersed in movement, and my brain was making sense of where I was in space. Staging a dance, I learned at some point, required attention to lighting and shadows, costuming, and a different kind of timing.

I like to think the faculties used in dancing and staging help me when I position myself behind a camera to archive “the story of a moment”.  When someone asks me what I like to photograph, it’s easier to tell them I don’t do portraits.  And while I have a few special portraits in my archives, the bulk of my images reflect my love for and appreciation of the natural world, artisanship, and a few other areas of interest. The bioenergetics of some scenes make them simply irresistable.

Most of my “subjects” appear “au naturelle”, but, on occasion, I take liberties with colour and texture when photo editing or employ HDR (high dynamic resolution) technique. To me, there is a mystique to landscapes and some objects, how they are lighted or shadowed. That mystery compels me to study the scene with my camera. When I am not needing to stop action and can use a tripod, I can stay there for hours, waiting for just what I think will be shown.

When I review a photo, either as an emulsion from the photo lab or backtracking through digital images, I am like a child on Christmas morning. There are surprises under the tree, and I get to open each one. Photographs, to me, are like those surprises. It never gets old.