My career as a photographer has taken me all over the world -- in fact, it has taken me to about 80 countries around the world -- about 27 times. I mention this because I don't work out of a conventional studio. My studio is wherever my work takes me and several locations lack many of the luxuries we take for granted such as electricity or clean drinking water. Places like Sudan, Rwanda, parts of the Middle East and most recently the Arctic Circle and Antarctica offer incredible opportunities for me to tell a story and each location has attracted me to visit not once, but many times. The stories I bring back from these locations are very different but in the end, the goal is always the same -- come back with images, no excuses. And for me, especially in the case of Darfur in Sudan, my photographs represented proof that atrocities and unimaginable events against humanity had occurred, and continue to this day.

As a photojournalist, I’ve learned to use whatever is available to me to capture the images I’m looking for. There aren’t any “props” when photographing news or the environment that surrounds me. It’s life as I see it with no additives to make it funnier, prettier, more dramatic or more exciting. The same holds true with my light source. I rarely have the luxury of bringing portable strobes on my shooting assignments – even on my commercial advertising jobs. My commercial clients are looking for something natural, not something set up and oftentimes that includes natural light, or at least natural “looking” light. I have used strobes in the studio when I’m trying to achieve a particular look for a client, but I normally don’t have the luxury of finding myself in a controlled environment so I have to work around the light source (the sun) rather than the other way around.

Keeping the lighting simple is something I always try to emphasize when teaching workshops or giving lectures. Whether it’s in the studio or on location, keeping the lighting very simple minimizes complications and forces you to look at your subjects from varying angles and perspectives. Many of my best shots were produced because I was forced to move around a subject and change my perspective when the only light source I had could not be changed. The light was stationary and I was the one that needed to move. It is a great exercise and one I am constantly sharing with students in my workshops.

I especially like backlighting my subjects. This is a personal preference on my part but feel it gives my subjects an added, unique dimension and has become somewhat of a “signature” of my style of work if there is such a thing. The point is to be creative, find your own space and use the light to create something that is unique to you. With some practice you will discover a look that is indicative of your own personal shooting style.

Because the sun is my only light source most of the time, I find myself moving around my subjects to get the look I want, assuming I have the luxury of moving at all. While photographing icebergs in Antarctica, I kept the captain pretty busy so I could properly position myself around my subject based on the light. This was also the case in the Arctic Circle where the Polar Bear was my primary subject.

While much of my work over the past 20 years has been as a documentary photographer, I have used my "shooting style" as a journalist and applied it to the world of advertising. Whether it's advertising or documentary, my studio continues to be the world around me and I can't afford any malfunctions with my gear, which is why I choose my equipment very carefully.

I can't stress enough the need to prepare for any assignment you’re given, even if the assignment is photographing your child's Little League baseball game. Whether it’s researching your subject’s background, personal interests, accomplishments, etc. or simply having a “Plan B” in case “Plan A” doesn’t pan out the way you anticipated -- a backup plan, if you will. The same could be said for protecting all the photographs residing on your memory cards. For me, and the type of work I do, I don't have the luxury of do-overs. And parents who are busy capturing many of life's "firsts" don't have the luxury of do-overs either. Life comes at us pretty fast and presents itself before my camera and either I capture it or I don't. A student once asked me if there was anything worse than not getting the shot. "Yes," I said. "Getting the shot and then losing it." That is the worst feeling any photographer could have and is why I protect all my photos and documents by backing them up on Western Digital storage drives.

I use WD drives for one simple reason -- they have never failed me, even in the most challenging circumstances including my recent trip to the Arctic Circle to photograph Polar Bears. With temperatures at -30°F and spending 8-10 hours in a Tundra Buggy miles from anything, backing up my images to Western Digital My Passport drives is not only a part of my daily workflow process, it was by far the most critical.

Someone once said that photography is 20% taking pictures and 80% problem solving and I certainly concur. But there is one constant throughout all my projects that I knew I could count on, even when we couldn’t count on anything going exactly according to plan – the flawless performance of my Western Digital desktop drives. For my office I use WD's My ShareSpace NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives. The NAS drives allow me, and my assistants, to access anything on these drives from anywhere in the world. This is critical for me because requests from art directors and art buyers often come when we're out of the country and they have deadlines too. The NAS system allows me, or my staff, to access images from anywhere.

At any given time I have at least four Western Digital My Passport portable drives with me on my assignments but never keep them together or in one location. I always have one in my camera bag and keep the others at various locations such as my hotel room, car, or boat (in Antarctica). This is additional security for my photos so if my camera bag is stolen (it happened) or someone breaks into my hotel room (it happened), I will have another copy of my work safely stored somewhere else. Whether it's just smart business or good old-fashioned paranoia, I know my images are safe.

There are two essential things I can always count on when I’m out taking pictures. The first is that the sun will rise and give me the light I need to capture my images, especially the early morning and late afternoon “golden light” opportunities of each day. The second thing I can count on are my Western Digital storage drives doing what they do best – safeguarding my life's work.