Still the kid with a camera
“How long have you been doing this?” It is a common question, and a good one. It speaks to experience: mistakes made, lessons learned, and whether you ever shot on film. I did. I even processed black-and-white film in my bathroom. My roommates were not fans.
The professional part is only part of the story. I started taking photographs when I was about twelve or thirteen. The curiosity came first.
A different way to judge a photograph.
While working in film production in Los Angeles, mostly on music videos and commercials, I began selling photographs through iStockPhoto. That experience changed how I thought about an image.
A photograph had to work for someone else. It needed to be technically sound, clear, and useful. A simple object on a white background could matter as much as a subject I personally found exciting. I learned to look beyond my attachment to the moment and consider what the photograph communicated.
Finding architecture.
After film work slowed and our first child arrived, I began looking for a different way to make photography part of my working life. I sorted my photographs by subject. Architecture was the largest stack.
I called the real-estate agent who had sold us our house and asked whether I could photograph a property. That led to years of photographing homes around Los Angeles. The work taught me to solve problems with light, space, and time. Eventually, I wanted to make more deliberate architectural photographs and spend longer with the details.
A wider picture in New England.
Moving to New Hampshire opened another chapter. Work with Portsmouth City Lifestyle brought opportunities to photograph people, food, and places with a different kind of movement. Local events and nonprofit assignments widened that picture further.
Today, my work includes portraits, businesses, architecture, interiors, and editorial stories. The subjects vary, but the interest is familiar: look closely, understand what is there, and make a photograph that helps someone else see it.
It has been a long journey. I still like the part where the next assignment asks me to look again.