The allure of the mountains influenced Ed growing up in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. As an avid rock climber Ed photographed the High Sierra for over 20 years. His summer vacations were spent exploring the Sierra Nevada. Wanting to maintain this lifestyle, he chose to stay in school as long as possible. This decision eventually resulted in Ed earning a PhD in Physics where he specialized in researching light.
When it time came to get a “real job” Ed accepted a research scientist position at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. There he was able to conduct his research in study of light, while also photographing the mountains on a regular basis.
Ultimately, Ed became more interested in directly impacting society and took a sabbatical from Los Alamos to join a group of cross-discplxnary scientists applying the science complex-adaptive systems to study human social systems. Ed pioneered research in computer modeling of organizations and societal groups.
After his sabbatical Ed continued to study human social systems and how individuals and groups become motivated to participate in political violence. This was a powerful time in Ed’s career as he worked closely with the government of the US and its allies.
Following 15 years of this research Ed chose to pursue his passion for photography full time. Ed chose this career change since he felt that through nature photography he could positively influence broader segments of society. By sharing his photos and narratives of nature he reaches across different identity groups and polarized populations to find common ground.
Now Ed works full-time as a nature photographer. He explores the mountain west capturing unique images of wildlife and stunning landscapes. The scientist inside Ed helps influence his images where he calculates the exact time and place to capture powerful alignments between the sun, moon, and stars with natural monuments in the foreground. Ed’s work is exhibited in galleries in Santa Fe and Taos and in publications.
Ed’s current projects include capturing different emotions of wildlife in powerful situations to demonstrate the rich emotions of wildlife; and a series, “Heavenly Alignments”, of photographs displaying celestial bodies naturally aligned with spectacular features in landscapes to emphasize more awareness of place and time in nature.
