Dennis Skillman Gallery | Seacoast Artist Association

I have a lifelong interest in nature and conservation. It all started when I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania with a family that loved the outdoors. We lived on the side of a mountain, with no other homes between us and the big woods. As I grew up, I explored every corner of that land. Everything wild and natural was a mystery to be understood and appreciated.

I have been involved in photography for more than 40 years. The time I had to pursue photography increased dramatically when I retired from a career in engineering. I worked in hardware, firmware and software design and management.

My area of interest is what I would call “Outdoor Photography”, meaning landscapes both totally natural or involving people and their constructs. Wild and domestic plants and animals are part of the subject matter I love to identify and photograph. I am not educated as a biologist, but as a result of my interests, I have spent considerable time in the field observing and learning to identify many kinds of flora and fauna (especially, birds, reptiles and amphibians, dragonflies and damsel flies, butterflies and moths.

I used my photography as a leader of the Bay Circuit Trail committees for Ipswich and the North Shore of Massachusetts, where I contributed photographs and writing to several published trail guides, including the AMC Trail Guide for Massachusetts. I led the effort that created Prospect Hill State Forest in Rowley, Massachusetts. I was a volunteer in the 5-year NH Audubon Dragonfly Study and I have lead a team of volunteers for NH Audubon restoring Purple Martins in the NH Seacoast. I won the NH Audubon’s Volunteer of the Year Award two times for these multi-year projects. Discovering, photographing and documenting subjects was an important part of this work.

My photography education comes from seminars, workshops, self-study, and practical experience. I was greatly influenced by the late Galen Rowell, whom I got to know at one of his outdoor photography workshops. I am a field contributor to Nature Photographer Magazine, where I have had several photographs and articles published. I also authored an article for Wild Bird Magazine, that describes birding in the Deer Hill Wildlife Management Area in Brentwood, NH.

I have exhibited my photos in the annual NH Society of Photographic Artists show in Exeter, the Churchill Gallery in Newburyport, Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, the North Hampton Library, the East Kingston Library, the Hampstead Library, the Exeter Library, the Newburyport Art Association (winning the photography award in the annual regional juried show), the Seacoast Artist Association, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Exeter Hospital, and several of my works are on permanent display at Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport. At the Seacoast Artist Association I have served as President, and as a member of the Board of Directors and I am an Exhibiting Member. The Seacoast Artist Association Gallery is located at 130 Water Street in Exeter, NH. Events and Exhibit information for the Gallery can be found at: http://Seacoastartist.org