Uwe Steinmueller, a native of Germany, has been a photographer since 1973. His first exhibitions were in 1978 in Bremen, Germany with photos from Venice, South Tirol, Germany, and France. He shares a joint copyright with his wife Bettina. He moved to California in 1997 and began working seriously in digital photography in 1999. He currently lives and works in San Jose. He has written a number of books, two of which won the prestigious, German, "Fotobuchpreis" award two years in a row, in 2004 and 2005. Uwe is the man behind outbackphoto.com, a popular website covering quality outdoor photography using digital cameras.