Let me introduce myself to you as Jasper James. I’ve been described as a naturalist, photographer, educator, and songwriter. I guess it’s true. I am all those things at one point or another and sometimes all at once. It keeps life interesting.

Let me answer the most common question I get. What sets my work apart and what do I use for equipment. The answer to the last part is 35mm Nikon cameras and lenses and Fuji slide film (100 ASA and 50 ASA). I spend many long nights in a traditional photo lab I set up in an old New England mill making sure each shot is a work of art. As of late I've been in transition to digital and my work is a split between the two formats.

What sets my work apart I believe is not the equipment but knowledge of the subject, patience and the use of light. Anyone of these is more important than the equipment. It’s not the quality of the hammer as much as the knowledge of the carpenter who is using the hammer. In 1976 I drove around the country on my motorcycle as I did every year but this time I continued on up to Alaska, I have returned some 50 times since then. This wealth of experience and the friends I’ve made with the elite of the photo world have given me unique opportunities.

Over these years, I’ve been dropped off on remote shores of the Gulf of Alaska and picked up weeks later, camped with the grizzlies about my tent and been eye to eye with wild wolves watching them take down their prey and howl from the ridges of Alaska’s highest mountains. I’ve climbed and watch glaciers crash, salmon run, hundreds of eagles flying just a stone’s throw away and stood in awe of the Great One (Mt McKinley) hundreds of times. And when the day is through and the sky is clear, the night sky may or may not dance in Northern Lights begging me to put off the sleep I may desperately need. So I wait cold and bleary eyed with no guarantee, hoping to be blessed by the “Spirit Path”. These are the ingredients of a great shot.

The fact is, I enjoy virtually every minute of it including the cold, rain, and the solitude. The blessings are many and the reward is the journey. Sharing it with you completes the circle and it becomes art only when it speaks to you. Without you, it’s just a photo.