T. PAIGE DALPORTO grew up in Charlton Heights, West Virginia. In 1969 he began trekking around the US and Canada, including Alaska. He began writing about his experiences in songs and poetry in 1973, and in 1986, began a career in photojournalism, mainly photographing southern West Virginia. He has won several press awards. T. Paige’s concerns include environmental preservation. He is active in Coal River Mountain Watch, an environmental watchdog group located in Whitesville West Virginia. In 1999, he began designing a book of this poems and photographs, "It's Still a Wonder Just Being Here:  Photographs and Poems", self-published that year. He describes the book as an examined life in poems and photographs. In addition to his book of poetry and photography, T. Paige has just released a new album entitled Solid Pearl; one of the featured songs on the album, "The Pearl" was written for his friends at Coal River Mountain Watch to express his concerns over the practice of mountain top removal in West Virginia.