We have been fascinated by the landscape features of our beautiful planet Earth from the earliest days of photography. Changing drastically from region to region, worldwide, we never fail to find something new, different or unique. Each new day brings different opportunities and challenges, our charge is to find the best possible angle where lighting impact records that unique point in time.

Great masters such as Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell have shown us with sparkling vision the potential the landscape offers us. I mention these two artists for the contrasts we see. Adams created his masterpieces in black and white; Rowell used strong color and atmospheric conditions to create striking ageless impressions of our world.

I have been attracted by the landscape from my high school days and continue to find new and refreshing opportunities everywhere I turn. Most of my emphasis has been in the Southwest as I led Oklahoma State University students on yearly workshops into Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona or Utah over an 18 year span.

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Working professionally for over 40 years in photography, I have enjoyed a varied background beginning as a photojournalist after graduating from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, in 1966, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Photojournalism. Beginning my career with the Examiner-Enterprise newspaper in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in July, 1966 serving as chief photographer and news reporter, I had the opportunity to work under the pressure of deadlines and report the news with accuracy.

Married to Mary Kay Allen for 44 years, we have two children, Melissa Adam, Clear Lake Texas and Scott, Edmond Oklahoma. We also have four grandchildren, Taylor and Kayleigh Adam and Madeline and Ryne Allen.

After three years with the Donrey News Media newspaper in Bartlesville, I had the opportunity to return to the Oklahoma State University system as a technical writer and later photographer in the public information office at OSU-Okmulgee (now OSU Institute of Technology). Serving 17 years as a member of the public information staff set the stage for an opportunity and a challenge that continues today. In 1988, I was given the opportunity to create an Associate of Applied Science Degree program in Photography at the internationally recognized technical college.

Starting from the very basic beginning, the program developed over the years to become one of the premier education opportunities in the photography profession throughout the Midwest region of the country.  Beginning by writing curriculum for each of the courses over a two-year period, complete with challenging assignments appropriate to the subject-matter, I was able to watch the program grow to the point of 100 graduates before retiring in August, 2002 after 33 years with the technical branch campus.

During the years of developing the degree program in photography, I continued to operate a studio business in Okmulgee, with a multitude of assignments including senior portraits, family portraits, over 250 weddings, and sports activity photographs of youth league sports programs. Also continuing the photojournalism portion of my career, I worked for the Donrey newspaper locally, the Okmulgee Daily Times, with primary responsibilities over a 32 year span of sports coverage for the high school in Okmulgee and across Okmulgee County.

As a part of the photography program at OSU-Okmulgee, we created an elective workshop to give the students and anyone else willing to learn the opportunity to experience the landscapes of the Southwest. Over the past 20 years, I have been fortunate enough to be part of the teaching team for the Landscape Photography Workshop that has given over 200 participants the opportunity to create images in locations in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. During those 18 workshops, I have established a varied black and white and color portfolio of images featuring the rugged country, as well as historical buildings and ancient dwellings.

Active over the years in local, state, regional and national organizations for photographers, I earned the Certified Professional Photographer status from the Professional Photographers of America in 1982 and have continually maintained the Certification since that time. In 1999 I received the PPA Craftsman Degree.

Serving in various offices in the Professional Photographers of Oklahoma, I was honored to serve the organization as president in 1999-2000. I currently represent Oklahoma on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Professional Photographers Association as treasurer. The regional association consists of photographers from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico. In 2002 I was honored to receive the highest honor awarded by the Professional Photographers of America, through the Professional Photographers of Oklahoma. The National Award is recognized internationally as representative of outstanding contributions to the photographic profession.

While a teacher of photography at OSU-Okmulgee I was honored for over 30 years serving as a volunteer photographer annually for the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (now Skills USA). I was presented their highest honor of Life Membership in 1996 and the same year was chosen by the OSU Board of Regents to receive the Regents Distinguished Teacher Award.

We moved our portrait photography business to Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa in 2001 and currently I am working with Tulsa Technology Center in Tulsa revising their curriculum in their high school program of photography and teaching primarily high school students the art and craft of photography. Since beginning to work at Tulsa Technology in October, 2003 we have undertaken a complete revision of the program to include digital technology at a much earlier point in the program and added a large number of advanced educational units to the second year of the program. In the Spring of 2006 I qualified for a Standard Teaching Certificate in Journalism through the Oklahoma Department of Education, and in 2008 completed a Standard Teaching Certificate in Technology Education.