My journey into photography was fueled by a desire for high quality picture-memories of my many hobbies. Eventually I realized that despite having a long, proven track record of possessing net negative aesthetic talent, I had an eye for this. Being the only form of artistic beauty I was capable of producing, I was driven to nurture my talent. Naturally I began with captive models, the implication is a form of witness control. The parrots at Reptile Gardens were the subject of countless artistic blunders, and that's where I learned to focus on the background and position my model to complement it.

Feeling confident in my ability to at least create images with beautiful bokeh, I began working with models who have much more fragile psyches: humans! Shooting as often as five times a week, I practiced my studies of posing and lighting.

Both my interest in psychology, and my technical mindset played vital roles in the style I developed. On the one hand my desire was to pose my models perfectly, exhibiting impeccable form, and on the other hand I wanted them to express emotion or personality -- and these goals seemed contradictory. Then later when I studied aesthetic philosophy, I learned that intentional self presentation is traditional portraiture. So my style is traditional!

Although photography is important to me, I'm primarily a software developer. This website is intended to be my most substantial software portfolio project. And I'm also a student, triple majoring in psychology, philosophy, and computer science.

There is surprisingly at least one arena where all three majors intersect, which is philosophy of mind. However I didn't even know that until I took the class, so I get no brownie points for relentless dedication to a single cause.