I’m pretty even-keeled: I don’t get rattled. I’m just a happy-go-lucky guy doing what he loves. I’ve tried to be the rock-star photographer with the big personality. You know the one. Always ‘on.’ Always ‘out there.’ But, that’s just not me. My place is behind the camera — quietly having more fun than you’ll know. I got into photography as a hobby in high school, then took a few classes in college
. I quickly realized this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The only problem was I wasn’t really that good! I guess my instructors saw the potential I had, though, because they encouraged me to continue and see where it got me. I picked up the technical aspects (f-stops, shutter speeds, iso) quickly and that gave me a solid foundation to develop the artistic side. Eventually I reached the point where the art and the science became one, and things just clicked. I found my style. The first big chunk of my career was as a newspaper photographer. I documented some of the biggest stories of the last fifteen years. I traveled the world. I won awards. I witnessed the amazing, the depressing, the inspiring. I’ve met presidents, athletes, war heroes and thousands of everyday people doing extraordinary things. I had a career's worth of assignments in that short time. Unfortunately, in the last several years, newspaper photography has gone in a direction I wasn't keen on going in. I left my job as a staff photographer in 2009 and dedicated myself to documentary photography with an emphasis on weddings and sports. I love meeting new people and sharing in the moments in their lives. I love the spontaneity, the raw emotion, the reaction, and the challenge of finding new ways to tell someone’s story.
