Photography first grabbed me during college. The memory of the first camera I had the opportunity to examine closely is still vivid, a friend’s new SLR, which I turned over and over in my hands as if a wondrous alien instrument had dropped from the sky. After obtaining my own camera, my initial photo expeditions consisted of bicycle trips into the country, camera dangling precariously from my neck. I never took photography courses in college, nor while obtaining a Master’s in Environmental Studies. In fact, it wasn’t until I began working as a lemur caretaker at the Duke Lemur Center in the early 1980s that my interest in photography began to blossom.

As caretaker to a colony of amazing Philippine tarsiers, I started to photograph the tiny primates as they stalked, pounced on, and consumed their favorite food, live insects. Soon, the Lemur Center’s other fifteen species of lemurs, lorises and bushbabies attracted my photographic interests (some of the most beautiful animals in the world-- talk about supermodels!). Twenty years later, I can honestly say my interest has not waned in the least. There's only one problem: when you work with lemurs you get paid in fruit and monkey chow. So, out of economic necessity, I started accepting more wedding photography jobs. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I love it! True, human couples on the verge of matrimonial bliss, are neither rare nor endangered, but I have found that working with folks to capture the memories of one the biggest days of their lives is extremely rewarding.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to make three trips to Madagascar, surely one of the most fascinating countries on earth, and the ancestral home of the lemurs. Exploring an unspoiled rainforest containing thriving populations of lemurs is a joyous experience, as is experiencing the rich (and extremely photogenic) culture of the Malagasy people. I currently live near Hillsborough, NC, in a cabin overlooking the Eno River, surrounded by hundreds of acres of undeveloped forest. It’s like living in an unspoiled wilderness perched on the edge of the huge Raleigh/Durham metropolitan area. Each day I wake up and look out over a lovely stretch of river, then later drive to work to spend the day surrounded by some of the world’s most intriguing animals. Is it any wonder that my camera is never far from my side?

My first published photo appeared in 1985 in Alison Richard’s textbook Primates in Nature. The thrill of seeing that very small black and white photo of a tarsier in print has not been matched! Within a couple of years, one of my sifaka photographs was published in one of the last “real” issues of Life Magazine. Since that time my photos have appeared in National Geographic, Natural History, Animal Kingdom, National Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, National Geographic Kids, Ranger Rick, Outside, New York Times, American Photo, BBC Wildlife and an impressive number of textbooks and foreign publications too numerous to mention. One the most satisfying of my photographic projects has been the yearly task of putting together a Duke Lemur Center calendar, some of which are displayed at the bottom of this page, highlighting births and developments in our colony of “supermodels”.

Cover Photographs: Over the years, my photos have been featured on the covers of scientific journals, calendars, popular nature and children's magazines and books. You can see a sampling below.