I make landscape, cityscape, nature, and cultural images that evoke a strong emotional response in me. My bold use of color is heavily influenced by travel throughout the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and a 12,000-mile motorcycle adventure with my son from Minnesota to Argentina. Photography has always been a creative force in my life and I relish seeing, celebrating, and sharing beauty found in humble places. In order to accomplish this, I try to enter new situations with eyes and heart open, switching off the world, and truly experiencing the situation I'm encountering. Being an artist is not a permanent state for me. There are times I need to be a craftsman as well. When composing any image I must keep visually exploring whatever grabbed my interest and consider the basic building blocks of visual design - shapes, lines, textures, colors, and perspectives. My underlying desire throughout the process is to be sensitive to the essential structure I'm working with and to show understanding and respect for my subject matter. At times, I find value in representing the objective reality in front of me and I'll operate more in the tradition of fine documentary image-makers. At other times, I may wish to express a personal response to a subject or idea and create impressionistic images. When working in the digital darkroom, Lightroom 6 for me, my desire is to retain the visual clarity of an image without overly manipulating or making additions in post-processing. I'm a self-taught photographer and reside in Maplewood, Minnesota. I hold a Ph.D. in Education, currently serve as a professor emeritus at Bethel University, and I'm a former elementary school teacher and principal. I'm also an avid outdoors person, having hiked over half of the Appalachian Trail, lived in a tent for over two years, and worked as a muskie guide for seven summers. All of my work can be viewed at - www.jayrasmussen.smugmug.com. Please step in and let the images come to you. Let your mind be still and experience art, people, places, and life.