My story begins as a freshman in high school, where my life seemed to revolve around sports and girls – probably in that order. A friend of mine borrowed his uncle’s camera to take pictures of us on our BMX bikes and at that age, when a friend has something, you need it, too. It wasn’t long until I purchased my first camera, a Canon AE-1 Program with a 70-210mm zoom lens and off I went taking pictures of everything. When I spotted a local newspaper photographer with a giant lens out shooting our soccer games, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. 

 

I owe it to my mother to know I wasn’t going to be a professional soccer player, and she made the comment about going to college for photography. I wasn’t much of a student and the thought of going to college to study photography kind of blew my mind. I didn’t even know I could do that. 

 

My photographic journey has been amazing: I have been living the dream, photographing so many new cultures around the world and most importantly, creating a great life for myself and my wife Lisa, who I met in Sochi, Russia, when we were both working for USA Today at the 2014 Olympics. We have so much fun working together as content creators. She’s a writer and editor, and our separate talents blend perfectly. We love telling stories about our community and promoting local and visiting businesses. We love travel, teaching, sharing our experiences from what we have learned over the years, skiing, hiking with our dogs, cooking, entertaining, live music and just having fun.