Timothy G. McCary, a native Mississippian, has spent his lifetime immersed in the visual arts. His creative spark was ignited when attending summer arts camps at the University of Mississippi at the age of 6. He was bitten by the photography bug in high school and started an apprenticeship with S.J. Parham, a local portrait photographer in Oxford, MS. During this apprenticeship he learned the basics of photography, composition, and lighting as well as the use of incorporating a variety of media such as oils and pastels to enhance the final appearance of the photograph.Tim received a degree in Photography from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1984. While attending Southern MS he received the Outstanding Photographic Student Award. He attended seminars, participated in workshops and studied with several successful photographers while in college. During his senior year at USM he joined the Mississippi-Alabama Professional Photographers Association and won the prestigious, First Timers Award, given to the highest scoring photograph entered by a beginning member. He has won over 40 print awards as well as being named the Mississippi Photographer of the Year in 1989.Upon graduating from college, he and his wife Penny selected Natchez in 1985 as the perfect place to call home. Many of his portrait commissions come from the Natchez area, however his work is commonly found in homes throughout the South-Eastern United States as well as several foreign countries. He currently has an exhibit in the Arts Natchez gallery that features not only portraits, but landscapes and still-life.Tim is a firm believer in continuing education and attends several intensive workshops a year, studying with the top photographic artists in the world. He is a member of the Dead Artists Society, a fellowship of 21st Century artists that is dedicated to discovering their own artistic voice.We are a small but very passionate group that continually strives to push our artistic abilities beyond the common perception of what is a photograph ans what is a work of art. I feel that when I look at a photograph I have made, it is only the starting point, much the same way a potter looks at a lump of clay, or a sculptor looks at a block of stone.