Local Dentist Also Sees Life Through A Camera Lens

I knew that University Place dentist  took nature photos in his spare time, but I never expected to be so amazed by them.

In one image, a hummingbird's jewel-like body shimmers through the opaque veil of fanned wing feathers, frozen in a millisecond of time. In another, a fragment of melting ice clinging to a stick appears in sharp focus against a blur of moving water.

"I took up photography during dental school and have been taking photographs for 32 years," McPhee said. "In the early years, I did all landscape photographs. When I started my practice and had kids, my photography was limited to intra-oral photographs that I would use for my lectures.

"I teach photography and Photoshop techniques to dentists. Taking good intra-oral photographs is difficult and getting the proper color match to send to the dental laboratories can be tricky."

In 1998, McPhee got back into nature photography and bought his first SLR camera in 2000. He currently uses a Canon with lenses ranging from 14 to 600 millimeters in length. Macro, or close-up, photography particularly intrigues him and he finds birds and running water the most interesting subjects.

The most interesting setting, so far, has been Honduras. McPhee traveled there as a volunteer dentist on a medical mission for Hope For Honduras, Inc.

"We worked in villages with no electricity," he said, "and between patients, I would go out and photograph the people."

McPhee's photos can be viewed on www.charityphotos.com  and www.boxingphotographer.com. He also has a small gallery space at his office at 7120 40th St. W., in University Place, site of a recent exhibit of his eagle photos.

"When I was done with them," McPhee said, "I donated them to Evergreen Primary School, whose mascot is the Eagles."