I was first introduced to photography in high school. During my summers, I would spend all of my hard earned cash on a lens or an accessory for my Mamiya SLR. My senior year in high school, after saving my money for several years, I treated myself to my first Nikon, a Nikon Ftn. I’ve been a Nikon guy ever since.
Born and raised in Arkansas, I moved to Washington courtesy of the US Army. I was completely mystified by the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Even a greater draw was the Puget Sound and saltwater SCUBA diving. After spending a couple of years doing underwater photography in my spare time, I soon started teaching underwater photography for local SCUBA shops. I then authored the first PADI teaching manual on underwater photography, which remains in use today.
For the next 15 years, I found myself leading underwater photography trips to such destinations as Shark Reef, Bonaire, Bahamas, Fiji, Philippine Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia including Truk (Chuuk), Palau, Yap, and Pohnpei. In Aug of 2004, I deployed to Iraq as the senior Army Engineer for the US Embassy’s AID program. To keep family members up to date during my deployment, I sold all of my film camera equipment and turned digital. Again, I have never looked back.
These days, I find myself continuing to grow my photographic endeavors and at the same time striking out on new adventures. Starting under the watchful eye of Andy Biggs, I was exposed to photographing in Tanzania, Africa. To put it simply, I have fallen in love with Africa and am now offering safaris for both photographers and non-photographers alike. I am very pleased with the success of my Safaris to date and even more pleased with the advanced registration for safaris as far out as Aug 2011…randy hanna
Tags: adventure photography, cool travel photography blog, randy hanna
