About

My father was an avid photographer who modeled a lifelong passion for photography, taught me the intricacies of how cameras work, and gave me my first “real” camera when I was still a young boy. At fourteen, I landed my first after school job working with a group of five professional photographers, Photo Five, shooting weddings and studio portraiture. (Why it wasn’t called Foto Five, I’ll never know.) At sixteen, I was hired by the largest camera store in the region selling my dream cameras while also helping set up and run the store’s new computer department.

In college, my passion for photography remained strong but medical school necessitated I pack my camera away in order to focus upon my studies. The years of internship, residency, and fellowship also left little time for anything other than work, studying, and sleep.

Then after years of having barely picked up a camera, I found myself driving several hours to some ‘moonlighting’ jobs that were helping me pay off the student debt I had amassed over the previous years. These trips were always hurried, stressful trips in which I worried about what would be required of me there as well as how quickly would I be able to make it back to my office in order to be on time to see my patients there. Despite the distractions, I always saw a couple of places along my drive that made me think, “I should bring a camera with me next time I come here.”

When I finally remembered to bring a camera with me for one such trip, I did stop and take the pictures I had long been promising myself to capture. What struck me, however, was not beauty in the image I captured. Rather, my drive there and back was as though I had awakened from a slumber and finally saw the beauty around me I had missed in the countless trips I had previously taken.

Since that day, I have continued to carry a camera with me whenever possible to help me remain vigilant of this ever-present beauty and, when possible, to try my best to capture it.