Artist's Statement: Many have said my photography exposes a hidden world – a world that lies undetected by our way of seeing. It might be the stunning iridescent color schemes of tiny hummingbirds that we see as dark blurs in our gardens, or the astonishing details of small bugs and moths that fly around us at night while we sleep. Perhaps the apex predator mountain lions that live among us, even in the urban areas of Los Angeles. It might also be the ‘essence’ of my human subjects, captured in a moment of existence, from vulnerability to hilarity. Our humanity is often masked by bravado, insecurity or powerful ego, but when exposed and captured, it reveals the true beauty to be found inside each and every one of us.
I love the technical challenges of wildlife photography, and the empathic challenge of human photography. My goal is to express the inherent beauty in everything I photograph, and make it possible for others to see.
Some Background: Roy is well known for his expertise in capturing amazing images of hummingbirds in flight using high speed flash techniques and equipment he developed himself. He is also known for his fine art 'Essence' portraiture. The last few years have seen Roy focusing his efforts on the conservation of Southern Californian Mountain Lions. He captures imagery of these elusive felines by working with expert field trackers and biologists, and exploiting camera traps. These camera traps are state-of-the-art and Roy has helped a lot with their product development. He shoots both high resolution still images and 4K video.
Roy was originally an electronic engineer, having graduated from an Australian university a long time ago. For a number of years he designed integrated circuits (IC’s) at GEC Research Laboratories, London, before entering the world of electronic design automation (EDA), marketing software tools for electronic engineers. In this role he traveled the world, and moved to the U.S. (North Carolina) from the U.K. in 1996.
In 2001, he started his own business, Fotronix, Inc., developing and producing high speed photographic flash systems. He moved to Southern California in 2004, and began consulting in many areas: high speed imaging, high speed flash, EDA, advanced technology applications, business development, and even such seemingly unrelated arenas as histology and radio-frequency identification (RFID).
In 2006. Roy officially retired from his high tech career, and has since pursued his lifelong passion of photography full time, as a photographer, teacher and consultant. He contributes time and effort to Cognisys Inc. – a photographic technology company, as well as consulting for Hadland Imaging Inc. - a global high speed imaging company. He considers none of this as work - it is way too much fun.
