In retrospect, it seems obvious that 21 months spent poring over my professional past for two major retrospective projects would end at the beginning, with a story package about nature photographer Bill Thomas.

As detailed in this four-part series, Bill is the one individual most responsible for the half century path that led me to Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National and Indiana University acquiring my professional archive — 50 years of my nature images and my Bill Thomas files among them.

Bill served as a mentor, friend, and muse from the moment we met at a camera store in downtown Bloomington in 1979 until I completed my half-century quest to photograph the Amazon in 2024 and am now planning a nature photo adventure to the Scandinavian Arctic in 2026.