"O. Truman Holtzclaw"

Truman was a biology teacher by profession (Retired 6/22/01), a photographer by passion. He blends these activities in his roles as past presidents of the Sacramento Audubon Society and the Sierra Camera Club. He also has worked as a park naturalist for the State of California. After 15 years of serious photography, Truman has acquired and perfected the skills to artfully blend his biology background and his love of nature to create a collection of about 80,000 beautiful images. As his photography reflects, Truman understands how life systems work and interact. He studies wildlife in the great outdoors, and social life in our society at large. His favorite subject matter is nature, but he enjoys most all forms of photography.

His photographic activities include attending and presenting workshops, leading field trips, competing in local and international competitions, preparing and presenting multimedia programs, evaluating photographic competitions, leading photo treks, photographing weddings, banquets, professional workshops and sporting events.

Travels have taken him to the Amazon, the Andes, the Galapagos Islands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and England; as well as Canada and the United States including Alaska and Hawaii. Six weeks as an exchange teacher in southern Japan also added to his photographic files. Although his foreign travels were wonderful, his favorite area for photography is still the western United States.

Nature subjects, especially landscapes, occupy most of his time. His favorite images are those that show great texture & detail in the foreground and have strong impact in the background.

Most all of his landscape pictures were taken within the first hour & half or last hour & half of the day. Light is so very important when exposing film. In addition to the singing "golden light" of sunset and sunrise, atmospheric conditions (rain, snow, fog, storms) can sometimes give that very special lighting moment that may never again be captured. Truman often uses reflected light (snow, canyon walls, water, sand, & others) to give unique lighting effects. Light and subject matter are probably the two most important factors he considers when making an image.

His favorite lens is the F 2.8 20mm Nikon wide-angle lens. Most all of his macro shots are taken with an F 2.8 105mm Nikon macro lens. His other two favorite lenses are the F 2.8 35-70mm Nikon zoom lens and the F 4.5 70-300 Nikon zoom lens. He almost always uses a polarizing filter. He also often uses a graduated gray neutral density filter for sunrise & sunset photographs. He has just started using the Nikon F100 camera. If you have any questions, please send me an E-mail at truman@abiphotos.com.