Mike on Day Four of a
backpack trip high in the
Sierra.
Credit: Nathan Moore.

I was born and spent most of my early years in Newbury Park, Southern California. I have many fond memories of family vacations to Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite, and beyond, travelling by motorhome. In fact, I was able to visit most of the national parks of western Canada and the United States before moving to Washington State in 1989. Olympic National Park was only twenty miles from my new home in Silverdale, and my appreciation of nature grew all the more there through hikes with the Boy Scouts and other groups.

It wasn't until a trip to Europe in 1996 that I really started taking pictures. The challenge of capturing nature's more spectacular moments on film renewed my desire to wander the trails, often for days at a time. That desire has become ever stronger after seeing my first medium-format transparancies: I finally had a "net" big enough to catch "big fish."

I have no offical training in photography (and frankly, I don't think it's necessary if you spend hours on photo.net...), but rather in physics and philosophy--bachelor's degrees earned from the University of Washington. I hope to press these degrees into service soon, and, with any luck, in a way that will allow me to continue to explore the Great North American West.

-Michael L. Anderson