My world includes photography, sports and travel, often with one affecting the other. Since the very generous CBS Sunday Morning feature about me ran recently, I've received a tremendous number of phone calls about my art and I'm only too happy to talk about it. And, of course, I'm always happy to find new galleries in which to show my work.

For what it is worth, I've been doing hand-manipulated Polaroids for five years now. In the past four years I've had nine one-man gallery shows. The shows have taken place at the Delaware Agricultural Museum, Dover, DE (August- October 2003), The Moonbeam Gallery, Fenwick Island, DE (Nov. 2002-January 2003), The Raubacher Gallery (Dover, Delaware - May/June 2002), The Edward Carter Gallery (Lewes, Delaware - May 2002), The Globe Gallery (Berlin, Maryland - November 2001/February 2002), The Gallery of Aloysius, Butler & Clark (Wilmington, Delaware - July/October 2001), The Kevin Kopil Gallery (Lambertville, New Jersey - November 2000/February 2001), The Dover Art League (Dover, Delaware - August/October 2000), The Sansar Gallery (Washington, DC, November 1999/February 2000).

To give you a quick version of who I am, here you go:

PR guy: My regular work over the past five years has been as a Public Relations person for Dover International Speedway and Nextel in the Nextel Cup Series. That's right, I do PR for NASCAR racing. Prior to moving to Dover, I lived in the Washington, DC, area for 15 years and most was Director of PR for Wolf Trap, a truly wonderful music venue. I also have written for the national publications Satellite DIRECT and Satellite ORBIT, as well as newspapers in Savannah, GA, Pinehurst, NC, Danville, VA, and Fairfax, VA. I've won three first prizes for my sportswriting and editing from the Virginia and North Carolina Press Associations.

Photographer: It is photography that, happily, occupies a great deal of my free time. I've been doing photography since 1972, when I took photo courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Even though I made writing and PR my areas of everyday expertise, I never lost my love for photography. Indeed, I've had photos of mine appear in daily and weekly newspapers and magazines. I've had photos in The Village Voice, Vineyard Gazette (Martha's Vineyard), Washington Times, Washington Flyer, WHERE Washington and numerous others.

The subject matter (as you will see in this web presentation) ranges from nature to sports to nudes. I count my prime photographic influences as Edward Weston, Man Ray and Arnold Newman, among others. And, as you may notice with the hand-manipulated Polaroids on this site, I have a deep and abiding love for French Impressionism.

The Process: Hand-manipulated Polaroids have been done since the 1970's, when the Polaroid Time Zero film and SX-70 cameras were at their heyday. But now, with Polaroid no longer making the SX-70 (however, you can still find them on auction sites like eBay), the number of devotees has been cut down a bit. Polaroid has continued to make the Time Zero film, and that is the key to the process. In essence, the emulsion that covers the Time Zero film takes a couple of hours to harden, and it is during that period of time that you have the opportunity to move the emulsion around to create dream-like, Impressionistic effects.

I use a golf tee as the instrument of choice to move the emulsion around. I like the way it fits in my hand and it is easy to create broad, paint-like strokes with the tee. Some people use dental tools and others crochet needles. I even found myself using small pieces of driftwood while working on some pictures on a beach in Tortola when I found myself without the trusty tee. I take the picture, let the picture completely come out, then get to work. I usually work with the grain of each picture. Be careful not to press to hard or you'll scratch the emulsion and there's no covering up a scratch. When I'm done, if I like the picture and feel it is gallery worthy, I will get a copy negative made of the original Polaroid that is as large as the picture itself. That way, when blown up quite large, the picture holds its grain.

And remember the two most important axioms of doing hand- manipulated Polaroids:
(1) be patient and don't expect miracles the first few times you do them and
(2) you can't get a good picture unless you take a good picture. In the case of SX-70's, get closer to the subject matter than you might think (it tends to make things smaller than they look in the viewfinder).

Enjoy the site: I hope I've answered any questions you may have about my work. Even after five years of doing them, they are an ongoing pleasure. Please feel free to peruse your way through my web site and, if you like my work, feel free to e-mail me (tarheelsjhd@starpower.net) to let me know. I do sell my work and will be happy to discuss it with you. And don't forget that all the photos on this web site are copyright protected and can not be used anywhere without my permission.

To the very generous women who have modeled for me, I hope you like these highly artistic photo presentations of you. Many thanks to Jenn, Amanda, Sherri, Leila, Lana, Leslie, Kim, Beth, Mary and Sally. You all do great credit to the art of the female nude.

Finally, I would like to thank the immensely talented Don Wicklin, who has essentially created this web site. We are constantly changing it for the better and to give you the opportunity to enjoy this rare form of art.