Like many photographers, serendipity played the biggest role in my photography inauguration. I had never before owned a camera when I received one as a birthday present in 1988. It was the typical setup that you'd find at every K-Mart in the country: a Pentax K1000 with a basic zoom lens and a couple of worthless accessories. Since I either give something everything I have or nothing at all, that camera was either going to sit on a shelf and collect dust, or it was going to change my life. I'll let you guess which one happened.

I have always loved nature and the outdoors. As a kid, my family vacations were always to the mountains in search of waterfalls and my mother and older brothers would often talk about writing a waterfall book one day. Well, it didn't take very many mountain trips with my new camera to decide that I was going to write that book. But first, I had to learn how to take pictures. Early on, I signed up for a camera course at a local community college but after a few classes I realized that the best way to learn nature photography was to get out in nature and photograph it. I also read everything I could get my hands on. Favorite books included the popular ones by John Shaw and Galen Rowell's Mountain Light.

I started teaching photography seminars in the early 1990s, and soon thereafter began leading photo tours to the North Carolina mountains to photograph waterfalls. I really wasn't qualified to do either, having neither the experience to lead a group, nor an adequate knowledge of photography. But, boy, let me tell you, if you want to learn how to do something, a surefire way is to try to teach someone else. Pretty soon I was getting the hang of both teaching photography and taking pictures for myself. Photography was now a way of life.

After a couple of years with the Pentax, I switched to a Nikon F3 and have been shooting with Nikon ever since. I'm not one of those brand name purists; rather, gear choices are a matter of practicality. I simply have too much invested in Nikon to consider anything else. That's also why I haven't yet begun to capture images digitally. The considerations of not only obtaining the gear, but also investing time for the learning curve, are simply too much for to absorb at present. I realize that it won't be too much longer before film will be as ancient as that old K1000, so I'm presently learning everything I can about the digital world. I use a Nikon Super Coolscan 400ED to scan slides and Photoshop CS to play around with them on the computer. This allows me to learn basic digital workflow without taking risks in the field. If I started out with digital capture, I'd miss some shots early on because I didn't know what I was doing. With tight deadlines, I can't afford to make mistakes in the field.

My greatest satisfaction is producing books. In 1994 I wrote North Carolina Waterfalls and in 1996 Wildflowers of the Southern Appalachians. Then I took a break from books for a few years and concentrated on building up stock files and leading a few photo tours. Now I'm heavily back into the book world, having produced Waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia in 2002 and Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2003. North Carolina's Best Wildflower Hikes is the latest book project, scheduled for publication by Westcliffe in spring of this year. Presently, I'm working on a complete revision to the North Carolina waterfall book, in addition to a coffee-table book about North Carolina for Voyageur Press. Three other books are in the works, but I have a strict policy of not discussing topics until the ink has dried on the contract, so to speak.

The best advice I can think of for aspiring photographers, particularly those interested in a photographic career, is to concentrate on one region and shoot what you love. If you travel all over the world and shoot everything along the way, you'll have a tremendous amount of competition from other photographers who probably will have deeper files. From a marketing standpoint, I think it's much better to have quality, in-depth coverage of a small region, than it is to have mediocre coverage of a large area. As for shooting what you love, why get into photography in the first place if you're not going to enjoy what you shoot?

Selected photo credits: Falcon Press, Chanticleer Press, Blair Publishing, Simon & Schuster, Northword Press, Menasha Ridge Press, Globe Pequot, Scholastic, Donihe Graphics, Silver Burdett Ginn, The Nature Conservancy, Nature's Best, National Geographic Adventure, Outdoor Photographer, Nature Photographer, Backpacker, Blue Ridge Country, SINRA, Birder's World, Outdoor Traveler, Natural History, Outdoor & Nature Photography, Tarheel Banker, The Tennessee Conservationist, Our State, Western North Carolina Travel Guide, The Living Bird Quarterly, Family Fun, Wildlife In North Carolina, Wonderful West Virginia, numerous commercial credits.

Selected writing credits (Magazines): Outdoor Photographer, Nature's Best, Nature Photographer, Carolina Style, Our State, Blue Ridge Country, SINRA, Outdoor & Nature Photography, Waterfront Lifestyles.

Books produced (Author/photographer): North Carolina Waterfalls (Blair Publishing), Wildflowers of the Southern Appalachians (Blair Publishing), Waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia (Menasha Ridge Press), Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Globe Pequot Press), North Carolina's Best Wildflower Hikes (Westcliffe Publishers, due out in spring 2004).

Teaching credits: Leads photo tours for the Great American Photography Workshops and teaches seminars and workshops for others on a regular basis. In 2005 will begin offering special North Carolina photo tours.

Miscellaneous credits: Chosen as photographer of the year (1998) for the North Carolina Zoological Park, featured photographer in Daybreak 2000; winner of the 1994 Year of the Coast Award and the 1995 Year of the Mountains Award, with the winning entries presented to Governor Jim Hunt; one of two photographers for the book Carolina Prayer, which was presented to Governor Mike Easley in 2003, writes monthly "Natural Heritage" feature for Our State magazine.

Editor's Comment: You can see more from Kevin on his website at http://www.kadamsphoto.com.

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