James and Gordon are my two given names.

My grandfather was James Gordon, and my uncle, who was killed in World War 2, was "Jimmie" Gordon. Growing up, I was referred to as "Little Jimmie", or "young James Gordon". My grandfather was a poet, who roamed with Australia's equivalent of Mark Twain. James Gordon is a tribute to him.

My interest in capturing images began at an early age, as you see here. This was about six months after my mother died. I don't think that my family had broken the news to me at that stage. They told me that I was forever looking around, wondering if I would see my mother. My dad made me toy camera that did not take pictures, but I loved it.

But my real start came when I was ten years old, after a 150 lbs neighborhood bully had knocked me off my bike and fallen on top of me. I was in hospital for months with a snapped femur and was given my first camera to help me convalesce at home. It was a basic Kodak Duaflex - no controls, but I loved it.

I photographed everything - my family, my dog, my friends, my country town. During my teenage years, my Uncle Ken took an interest in my creative learning, and taught me the basics of exposure, focus, lighting, and framing, as well as black and white darkroom techniques.

But, I yearned for a "real" camera with dials and things, and bought a Kodak Retinette with the money from my first job after I left school, and my photography took off from there, with further help from Uncle Ken.

Wedding and school photography earned money for better cameras, but ironically almost killed my interest. My real passion was for landscapes and nature, and for cities.

As luck would have it, my work and love of travel took me around the world to over twenty countries, and thousands of pictures. I still get joy from some of the pictures that I took over twenty years ago, but find that some no longer meet my creative standards of today. Others stand the test of time.

Originally from Australia, I have lived in California since 1993, and find North America to be an unbelievably wondrous place for his photography.

One event made a major impact on my pictures. In 1995, my wife gave me the gift of a photography workshop at Mono Lake, California, with Clinton Smith, who had studied under Ansel Adams.

What I learned from Clinton made a quantum leap in my work, and gave me the insight I needed for a magical tour of the New England area of the USA, when the autumn colors were at their peak. (This is also when I also proposed to my wife).

These days, I do all my "darkroom" color printing work with my trusty Macintosh and Photoshop, and the Epson Photo Printer. Apple's Mac OS X is so "human" and beautifully designed, I can do all my work in a creative mode.

And today, my printed pictures allow me to share my pleasure with many people. My wife is my most avid fan and supporter, closely followed by my long time Aussie friend,Walter, and a close "photo buddy", Ellen.

More recently, my work has been influenced by way of exploring different genres and subjects. Durnford King has got me thinking about industrial subjects with his work, and the late Fred Haines has awakened an interest in spontaneous portraits of people I meet.

The aim of my work is to capture a moment - the experience of being in a special place at a special time.

A good place to start is my "Favorites" page.

Take the time to tour the gallery, and e-mail your thoughts to me.