Melissa: I started taking photos when I realized I couldn't paint. From as early as I can remember I had always wanted to be a painter like my older brother. My early childhood memories are of sneaking into his bedroom when he wasn't there and playing with the pencils and kneaded erasers at his drawing table and smelling the smell of turpentine. While in high school I saw the portfolio of a photographer friend of his and knew that that was how I could make my images. I received my first camera in high school and from there went on to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. My early work concentrated on traditional black and white imagery. From NYC I went on to live on Martha's Vineyard and then traveled cross country and settled for 6 years in the San Francisco Bay area. That's where I met Tom! He has taught me to look at the world in a new light. One filled with color. My newest work has been inspired by my mother's diagnosis with Alzheimer's Disease.

Tom: I got involved in photography back in the late 60's and bought my first equipment while stationed in Guam. After serving in the Navy I worked in the photo industry for over 30 years and am largely self taught. To me being able to see something, click a shutter and then have it look great on paper is wicked cool! My latest work I call "Abstract Uniformity". It is looking close at nature and how it all fits but the closer you get the more abstract it looks.

Together: We met while we were both working at a professional photo lab in San Francisco. We started our first studio together in Oakland, CA., where we mainly photographed the work of other artists for their portfolios. At that time we began experimenting with the Polaroid Image Transfer technique. Since then we have moved to northwestern Connecticut where we were married and continue to work on our individual projects as well as collaborate together. One of our projects has been to transform our 1/2 acre yard into flower and vegetable gardens. Most of Tom's Botanical images are from this garden. We also share our home with an ancient cat named Ed (short for Oedipus). We found him at the ASPCA in Oakland and he traveled cross country with us when we returned to the east coast. Ed will be 20 in 2007. His life these days revolves around sleeping very contentedly on the couch, eating, drinking and the occasional outdoor adventure.

Ed passed away in April of 2007. We miss him.

But we have added two new members to our family. Boo, a small black kitten, showed up in our yard six weeks after Ed passed away. We would find her resting in the shade of the hosta planted next to Ed. We believe he must have been her guardian angel and led her to us as she obviously needed a home. Then another black cat showed up, we call him Spooky Man. He's a bit wilder than Boo and we are in the process of trying to tame him and have the two of then get along! We can now pet him, to a point, and he purrs like crazy!