First, let me set the record straight by letting you know I'm not a full-time photographer/writer. I'm what's known in the industry as a freelance photographer/writer. In other words, I don't make a living as a photographer/writer. My full-time job pays the bills, supports my professional hobby, and affords me some advantages. You see I travel North & South Carolina, East Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and parts of Alabama conducting fire and safety inspections and training programs for an insurance company that specializes in the wood industry. Naturally, I don't like to sit in a hotel room, so I explore the areas I travel for photographic opportunities.

I really started photography for stress relief about 25 years ago when I was a fire chief. I grew up in rural Guilford County, (NC) and I always liked the outdoors. Like most country boys, I learned to hunt and fish from my father, grandfather and uncle and would help with various farm chores during my school years on my grandfather's farm. Hunting today, especially small game hunting, has become a thing of the past in this rural area of the county that I grew to love. Farmers now grow houses, apartment buildings, and shopping centers where I used to follow behind my father and our old bird dog in search of a covey of quail, or listen to the beagles make pure music as they chased a big old cottontail rabbit. So to me, nature and wildlife photography was a natural change over from carrying a gun to carrying a camera - it just seemed to go together like apple pie and ice cream.

So you are asking, what does this have to do with photography and becoming a multi-millionaire? Well as times changed, so did I. I now do most of my hunting with a camera instead of a gun, and I can hunt year-round. My day is not much different from any other person who loves to get up before daylight and stay up late. As you may know, if you are going to be a wildlife photographer, you have to be where the subjects are when they are active. This usually means early morning and late afternoon. In between these times, you'll find me working my regular job, developing areas in our backyard wildlife habitat, or looking for new places to photograph wildlife. At night, I used to work over a light table looking at slides (now its in front of a computer) trying to decide if I have anything worth keeping or anything a editor would want to publish. Then there is the task of labeling the slides (digital these days), looking up Latin names of the subjects, getting submissions together to mail to the various publishers (burning CD's or DVD's), meeting deadlines, getting equipment cleaned and ready to go again. Then there is the task of re-filing slides (film) returned from previous submissions along with those rejection letters from the editors - telling you they could not use your slides and/or story at this time but they liked your work and to try again. Folks, it is a plain fact, if you are thinking about submitting work for publication, you had better have a thick hide and get used to rejections.

Amid all of this, you also need to work in some quality time with the family during the evening hours and weekends. Sounds like fun you say!

There are some other joys you endure as an outdoor photographer: like burning up in a blind waiting for a chance to photograph a subject that you hope will come by (sometimes waiting for hours). Those biting insects that find you no matter what or how much bug spray you have with you. Freezing temperatures in the winter and having on so many clothes you can hardly move or your fingers going numb from the cold, and you don't know if you can press the shutter release on the camera. Then there is the awesome task of carrying all the equipment you think you will need, setting up blinds and equipment, and realizing what you really need is still in your car or worse yet at home. Then there is the battery issue for your camera that is not supposed to go dead out here in the middle of nowhere, after all I paid a lot of money for this do- it-all camera. Boy, am I having fun yet, after all, this is the life - right?

Now don't get me wrong, being an outdoor photographer/writer has many rewards: like watching a young bird dog point its first covey of birds, the excitement of seeing the birth of a newborn animal and watching it takes its first steps, young ducks and geese swimming on an early morning misty lake, or young birds being fed and cared for by their parents, watching a young child catch their first fish, or going a field for the first time and seeing the excitement in their young faces. Then there are the rewards of being accepted by a publisher and seeing your photographs and/or story being published and knowing the long hours spent and the money invested on equipment has finally paid off in some small way.

Being an outdoors photographer/writer has not made me a multi-millionaire in dollars. The memories, photographs I have had the privilege to take over these years, the many friends I have made along the way, plus the many places I've visited, have made me a multi-millionaire with all of the memories to treasure for years to come. In fact, I bet you will discover that you are a multi-millionaire too!

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