Terra Lumina is my on-going project to photograph the beauty of the natural world, and honors a long heritage of an idealistic, romantic vision of wilderness.

Begun in 2004, Terra Lumina has in its distant roots the boyhood family camp outings and later backcountry treks in California's Sierra Nevada range which launched a life-long love of wilderness. This passion was combined with my renewed commitment to photography (sparked by the digital imaging revolution) and the desire to elevate my craft to a higher level.

All of these elements influence a formal photographic sensibility complemented by a modern "digital lightroom" workflow. I do post-process my images, but only at a level consistent with best practices of traditional "wet" darkroom work.

NOTE: The images in this on-line gallery represent the first steps of my personal project to create a 60-70 image self-published book and an 18-24 image print portfolio. As I make my selections over time to choose the final images, I invite your comments, critiques and questions.

UPDATE 6/30/09: I've made my first cuts for the book and print portfolio. In both cases (particularly the portfolio) I've got way too many picks. I've got to cut about a third of the book selects and about two-thirds of the portfolio selects to get to the final choices.

UPDATE 11/12/09: Through the encouragement of artist friends, I have put together a portfolio to apply to Los Angeles County Museum of Art for inclusion in their Art Rental and Sales Gallery. Please see LACMA Selects https://pbase.com/pauls/lacma_selects below for the full story and my final choices.

UPDATE 2/4/10: I just received a letter from the gallery manager of the LACMA Art Rental Gallery. Unfortunately, my portfolio was not accepted: "we are unable to offer you a place in one of our exhibitions at this time." At this point I will continue to work on the print portfolio I have started as well as my self-published book.