Through the lens

The story

A lifelong eye for the frame

Photography has been part of my life longer than almost anything else. I can still remember the quiet magic of a darkroom — watching an image slowly emerge in the developer tray, not yet knowing if you'd gotten the shot. That early experience gave me an intuition for light that no class could have taught.

After college, the camera went on a shelf while my career took over. A few years in, I picked it up again and quickly remembered why I'd loved it. Now, whenever I travel, a camera comes with me — it changes how you move through a place. You slow down, look twice, notice the frame within the frame. Several of my landscape images have been exhibited in a gallery and sold as prints.

Studio work is a different discipline entirely, and I love it for that reason. Getting the light dialed in — the angle, the power, the balance between key and fill — is a puzzle I never tire of solving. That attention to detail led to one of the more surreal moments of my career: a studio portrait I made was licensed by a phone case company and used in a global advertising campaign. It ran at a CrossFit competition — and by pure chance, the person in the photo walked past their own face on the way to their event.

Most of my work these days is family portraits. I have recurring clients I've photographed for years — watching kids grow up through a lens, seeing families expand. It's the kind of work that reminds you why connection matters more than any technical achievement.