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 setting up and running the store’s computer department.

In college, my passion for photography remained strong but medical school necessitated my packing my camera equipment 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. These trips were always hurried, stressful trips in which I worried about making it back to my office in time to see my patients there. During these drives, I passed several places that always 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 promised myself to capture. What struck me, however, was not beauty in the image I captured. Rather, my experience driving there and back was as though I had awakened from a slumber and finally saw 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.