While many questions punctuated my childhood, this is the one I dreaded most because I had no answer. I knew I was a hard worker, but I lacked direction. So at 16, I took my first job at a hardware store. While that money lead to my first car and, in turn, endless trips to different punk rock shows with my friends, when high school ended a few years later, I was just as aimless as before.
With a vague interest in film forged from a childhood of movie watching and making with friends, I enrolled at my local community college for Electronic Media with a focus on film.
Community college or not, the high cost of education was inescapable. With a vague familiarity in the trades, I turned to working with my hands full time at a metal shop and spent years moving from one sheet metal shop to the next.
All of that changed when my wife and I started our family and she gifted me with my first digital camera in years on Christmas. People say that being a dad changes you, but I never believed them until I held my own children.
"I Was Hooked"
Wanting to document my family as we all aged and changed gave me the direction I had lacked. I dove head first into photography. A strong spark was lit as I learned more and more about all the emerging technologies in the decade following my time at school. Lighting. Lenses. Cameras. I was hooked. I never wanted to miss capturing a special moment.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
After 10 years busting my ass in metal working, I finally had my answer. I invested every moment I had into photography and with years of shooting, training, and more than a little luck. I’m finally working in a field that I love full time to provide my clients with the same gift that has enriched my life: documentation of the most precious people in your life. Leaving a stable 9-5 to start my own business was the hardest but most rewarding decision I’ve ever made.
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