Location: San Diego, California, and www.dananeibert.com.

Duration: One year in business, shooting for ten.

Staff: Three: me and two full-time models (my beautiful wife and daughter). My crew is usually appropriate for the job at hand—from as small as one assistant to as large as a crew of twenty.

Education: Dropped out of the CCAC [now CCA] graphic design program many years ago. The dean kept asking me if I'd considered welding as a career.

Cultural Influences: In no particular order: Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, twentieth-century landscape painters, Albert Bierstadt, Ernest Hemingway, motion film, nature, Gustav Mahler, craftsmen, Mark Rothko, stuff I haven't seen before, my family.

Environment: Since I'm a location shooter, I just have an office at home in a 1912 house on a beautiful island—helps keep the imagination fresh. The house is full of artwork. Looking out the window and watching ships go by and disappear into the sunset or my two-year-old daughter figure out that the hose will indeed get her wet if she points it straight up helps me figure out what I'm going to shoot tomorrow.

Philosophy: I try not to over-think things. Usually that's when things start to look contrived and unnatural. I also like to keep things simple. Too much stuff and the idea or concept begins to get lost.