Before I was a photographer I was trained in the darkroom of my father's photographic travel company, Thru The Lens Tours, printing images from the leading location and landscape shooters of the day. So my wanderlust and passion for photography came naturally, as did my love for the visual power and personal "voice" of the fine print. There was little doubt that this would be my life's work.

Yet, as my travels and photographic success increased, I had less and less time for printing. This didn't bother me, however, because I knew that powerful prints required powerful images, and I was seeing and photographing remarkable things in some of the world's most picturesque places. But, "someday," I kept telling myself, "I'll get back to the darkroom"...

Occasional exhibits scratched my print-making itch a little, but never relieved it completely. For the prints were made by professional labs—and while they were good (in fact, very good), they weren't entirely my vision. How could they be, since I didn't print them? If the fine print is truly the ultimate expression of a photographer's vision, it simply must be printed by that photographer. It can't be otherwise. So I would have to wait a little longer ... well, actually, a lot longer.

Waiting photographer, Cuzco, Peru

But now, at last, the wait is over. A new season has come, bringing me back to my print making roots with four decades of travel and landscape images that I'm very eager to print. Many of these are highly renowned, others are unpublished favorites, and some are new creations. The best known have never been printed to my satisfaction, and I'm anxious to establish my personal benchmark for them. For in books, ads, magazines, and prints from the finest labs, they have failed to accurately reflect my vision. The reasons for this are many, from the technical limitations of equipment and processes, to differences in individual color perception, and the emotional interaction between photographer and subject that makes every image unique. In time, the technical problems will be solved. But the physical and emotional vision "gap" will never be bridged, and that is a wonderful thing. For differences in human perception are foundational to stimulating conversation, which is what good photography is all about. As David Vestal eloquently put it, "We are all alike, so we can understand each other; and we are all different, so we have things to tell each other. The sameness makes communication possible; the difference makes it worthwhile."

The Conversation, Hyde Park, London

Anticipating a return to fine art printing for so long, it was possible my expectations would exceed reality. But, instead, they were too low. For recent advances in digital technology have so improved photographic reproduction that every nuance of the original scene can be faithfully rendered to perfectly match the photographer's vision. And that vision can be printed on a wide variety of archival papers and canvases to heighten its creative expression even more. So now the joy experienced in the Spring of my career—making fine photographic prints in the darkroom—has been renewed in the Autumn of my career, making even finer photographic prints in the lightroom.