I started photography as a kid. In high school and in college, I was a student journalist and I edited both my high school and college yearbooks. I shot for years with the old twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex cameras. Later my grandfather gave me my first great camera, a German-made Exakta. In college, I had a team of a dozen student photographers working for me. I started college as an art major, interested mainly in print-making, and I was also involved in photojournalism. After graduation, I didn't pursue a career in art or photography, opting to teach instead. I stopped making prints, but I kept taking photos. I recovered my passion for photography in 2001 when I got my first good digital camera and my wife and I traveled to China. Since then, I have a camera with me almost everywhere I go.
In 2003 I started making money selling photos taken at school sporting events, then at graduations, First Communions and Confirmations, fundraising galas, stage performances and other similar events. I shot my first wedding in 2006 and since then wedding photography and portraiture has been my focus. I have for the last couple of years been invited to take portraits of guests and their families at the Dallas Arboretum during their May Flowers event. In the last year, I have had the honor of taking the portraits of priests, principals, teachers, parents, children and coaches, including one of the coaches of the super successful USA 2008 Beijing Olympics swim team. The Dallas Arboretum has invited me back to take portraits as part of their wonderful May 2010 "May Flowers" special event.
I do not work generally for publication but my photos have appeared in magazines and newspapers from time to time.
I am an Active Professional level member of the Professional Photographers of America, the oldest and still one of the largest professional associations for photographers in the US of A.
I am an event photographer with a documentary approach and what I like to call a "classic" style. The best way to understand what I do is by looking at a few photos, but if you like to read about this sort of thing, read on.
"Classic style" means I want to take photos that will look fresh in fifty years. Now you can't actually try for this. Nobody knows for sure what will look fresh in fifty years. But I do try not to take photos that I feel are too trendy, because I know that these will date quickly. The point of the wedding gown and the tuxedo is precisely that these are not "fashions" that come and go every year. And that's what I strive for in my photography.
As for "documentary approach," that means I'm there to record what happened because what happened is important in itself - not just because it's a photo op.
Of course, I always try to take beautiful photos, but I am trying to capture the beauty of the world as it is - not create a beauty of my own.
I hasten to add that sometimes reality needs a bit of help to reach its potential. Most of us look better when we're cleaned up, and beautiful backgrounds are better than ugly ones (although truly ugly backgrounds can be better than merely ordinary ones). Portraits can be work. Many of my subjects find it hard to act natural in front of the camera. I understand. I'm the same way.
This is why I think wedding photography is the hardest - certainly one of the hardest - types of photography. Fashion photography, by contrast, looks easy. I mean, if you have beautiful models, professionals helping with costume, makeup, and lighting, and you shoot in exotically beautiful locations or terrific studios, how could you possible fail to take good photos? I take pretty photos in the Rocky Mountains, too. Almost everybody does. But photographing people on the move, people doing things - getting married, talking to friends, walking the dog or answering the phone - these are ordinary moments that pass so quickly that the photographer has to act fast, moments whose beauty is so delicate that the photographer has to tread lightly to capture it.
Anyone who hires me, hires me to take photographs, and I am happy to do so at a wedding ceremony in any church or synagogue, before a justice of the peace or the captain of a ship. As a photographer, I take delight in the diversity of ceremonies.
But to some potential clients it may be worth mentioning that I am a practicing Roman Catholic - a graduate of the University of Dallas and member of St Thomas Aquinas parish in Dallas. As a Roman Catholic, I believe that my talents, such as they are, come from God, and I think of my wedding photography in particular as a minor personal ministry. Of course, none of this makes me a better photographer. If only it were that easy! But I mention it in order to suggest that I understand, and I dare say, understand better than many other photographers, the nature of the Catholic Mass (as well as the Liturgy of Holy Orthodoxy). I do my job discretely and respectfully no matter what the venue. But when I am photographing a Catholic wedding Mass, I work not only discretely but also reverently. Does this matter? Ask your pastor or your parish's wedding coordinator.
I live in Dallas, Texas, with my wife Joan, the youngest of our three daughters, a couple of dogs and a couple of cats. Wife Joan is an attorney. Daughter #1 is entering med school next year, daughter #2 is about to enter law school, and daughter #3 is a ballerina. And me? I'm doing more photography than ever, but when I'm not taking photos, I run a very small software company, and I write. I've been working behind the camera for over thirty years and look forward to thirty more.