When Robert was growing up his mother gave him her old box camera and his father would let Robert use his 35mm manual camera that was before the time of internal meters, you needed a light meter to set the correct exposure. At around 12 Robert learned how to develop film and print photos. In addition to photography, when Robert was young, he had a big interest in electronics and computers and learned how to do house wiring. During high school Robert participated in the production of the school plays, and his interest in electronics resulted in Robert becoming the person that would run the lighting system and design the lighting scheme for the plays. Robert then attended college for electronic engineering and entered the disc drive sector of the computer industry.

While Robert was working in electronics his interest in photography never faded and he would eventually take photography courses at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Robert also took graphic arts classes to enhance his creativity when using a camera. All this schooling in photography taught Robert the technical aspects of how films work and how color films record and render colors. Robert used this knowledge and his drive to do something unique to perfect night photography, under both artificial and natural conditions, to the point that on almost any night with a moon Robert can photograph landscapes with extremely long exposures and achieve perfect results, photos that can be far more dramatic than the full moon night photographs that many photographers take. Photographs that can only be taken with film due to the length of the exposure.

With his engineering background, extensive knowledge of the chemistry and physics of photography, and his talents of designing and controlling theatrical lights, Robert is a master of photography. When it comes to studio situations Robert works with the lighting more than the camera in order to make the subject jump from the photo, to bring out the 3-dimensional aspects of the subject in the 2-dimensions of a photograph. Robert understands the many details of photography, from the grain structure of film, how to control color in situations where the work is being done under artificial light, how different black and white and color films react to light, how different color films render colors differently, and most importantly is these times, the nature, abilities and limitations of digital cameras.