Biography

I started my journey into photography at Northern Illinois University as a Journalism major with an Art minor emphasizing photography in both. Working at the daily college newspaper as a photographer & an assistant photo editor gave me the necessary experience to jump into a photojournalism career. I spent some time working for both a daily newspaper and a group of weekly suburban Chicago newspapers, and while it was a very exciting, fast paced life, it wasn't the one I wanted.

After moving to Charlotte, NC I worked in advertising sales while trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. One weekend my wife and I took a trip up to the North Carolina Mountains. It was in those mountains that I found that I found my calling. Or more accurately I heard the mountains calling to me.

I had lived in the beautiful mountains of Vermont for a few years while I was in high school but never appreciated their majesty while I was there. A few years later, though, I found that the mountains had somehow gotten into my blood. I realized on that weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains that I could take the storytelling of photojournalism and blend it with the creativity and timelessness of fine art to share the beauty and allure of God's creation.

Since that fateful weekend I have spent as much time as possible out photographing in nature while raising three beautful children. I have also spent some time sharing my knowledge and skills with others through private tutoring and teaching beginning photography workshops at Charlotte Camera. In 2007 I, also, founded the Charlotte Photography Meetup, a group of over 400 member photographers who come together monthly to learn from and share with each other.