POMA Outdoor Speakers Bureau

Topics

Texas Game Day:

 [Varies]

A photographic celebration of Texas Hunting and Fishing.

Texas Wild:

 [Varies]

A photographic celebration of Texas Wildlife.

Conservation education:

 [Varies]

Conservation education as it applies to a high quality public school education.

Making better photographs:

 [Varies]

Presentations for both amateur and professional photographers.

Various Other Topics:

 [Varies]

Managing your Digital Photo Collection

Why I teach (motivational speech meant for educators)

Field Judging Whitetail Deer

Celebrating the Outdoors - Photo Show

About the Speaker

Speaking History:

2005

South Plains Prairie Festival

Texas Agriculture Science Teachers Association Professional Improvement Conference





2006

Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching

Teaching Environmental Education Short Course

Texas Agriculture Science Teachers Association Professional Improvement Conference

Llano Estacado Audubon Society Meeting

Reydon, Oklahoma Commencement Address

Legacy Outfitters Annual Meeting

Texas Outdoor Writer's Association Annual Meeting

Texas A&M University- Commerce Alumni Ambassador Awards Day


2007

Welder Wildlife Camp breakout session

Southern Plains Conference

Whitarral, Texas Ag Boosters Banquet

Texas Agriculture Science Teachers Association Professional Improvement Conference

Bass Pro Shops Fall Classic Seminars

Texas Parks & Wildlife Deer Management Field Day

Core message:

My core message depends on the event.

It may be how you can more effectively celebrate your outdoor experience with photography;

How conservation education can enhance a high school curriculum;

Motivation for educators or high school students with a strong conservation theme;

How to judge whitetail deer on the hoof;

Texas Game Day - a photographic celebration of Texas Hunting and Fishing;

Or, just about anything Texas-related

Bio

I am passionate about the outdoors.

Since I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with nature, wildlife, agriculture and the outdoors. As a teenager on my family’s cattle ranch, I recall being chastised for searching for white-tailed deer when I was supposed to be looking for lost cattle in the hardwood bottomlands that filter the muddy waters of Bois d’Arc Creek.

I went to school in the tiny Northeast Texas town of Dodd City where I was surrounded by a rural culture that is still strong today. As a boy growing up on the rolling hills of the northern Texas blackland prairie region, my family introduced me to fishing, hunting, camping, trapping, and other outdoor pursuits.

Even after graduating college in the mid-1990’s, I passed up chances to live a more suburban and domesticated lifestyle and made my home in the southeastern Texas Panhandle where cattle, deer, and coyotes outnumber people. I still live in Childress although now I share my home with my wife Kristy and our two young children.

My family and I live a lifestyle that keeps rural traditions close. By trade, I teach agricultural science at a small high school where I’ve won numerous awards for my teaching including being named Texas Agriscience Teacher of the Year in 2001, 2003, and 2006 – a feat never achieved by anyone else. For me, it is an honor to help young people find a sense of purpose and see them achieve their goals and, along the way, help them earn thousands in scholarship dollars because of their affiliation with my agricultural science program.

By contrast to the rural ways in which I am so fond, I’ve embraced modern technology and incorporate multiple technologies for image capture and delivery which is at the vanguard of speed and efficiency for my chosen specialization.

Because of my background as a small town guy, I feel I bring a fresh perspective to my photography, writing, and speeches which makes my work unique. Sometimes I think I may have been born at least fifty years too late because I missed out on rural Texas when the most of the activity in a given area was centered on small towns. I hear old timers talk of little towns in the area and how the tiny burghs bustled on Saturdays as people came to town to socialize and shop. Often I muse about a time I can never experience. Then again, I use my digital camera and am reminded that being a small town Texan in today’s technological age, perhaps right now, I’m living in the good ol’ days.