I first became interested in cartography as an undergraduate student at Utah State University. I decided to further pursue this interest and entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Fall of 2007 where I began the Master's of Cartography and GIS program. This past semester I finished my coursework and began working in earnest on my thesis. While my focus is on cartography primarily, my interests have expanded beyond cartography to the visualization of data in general. I view cartography as encompassing the whole process of map making, including data collection, storage and maintenance as well as the production of maps.
Much of what I practice in cartography comes from my education at UW-Madison. In particular, taking the advanced cartography courses (Geography 572: Graphic Design in Cartography and Geography 575: Animated and Web Mapping) as well as working as a Teaching Assistant for the introductory cartography course have shaped my views on map-making.
A lot of my recent effort has been funneled into my thesis work to complete my Master's Degree. I have been using OGR via Python to process shapefiles in order to analyze the visual complexity of dasymetric maps.
If you have any questions or comments about my work, email me at reynolds.daniel.c@gmail.com