Artist Statement

Photography is the ultimate means of getting in touch with myself, and the natural world around me. My artistic vision is to create images that expose the beauty of life in all forms, but with importance on landscapes and wildlife. I strive to create and reproduce a photograph as if the viewer were actually seeing it out in nature. I want to bring nature to the everyday human being. Most of us our stuck in our everyday lives and do not get to experience what nature has to offer.
Nature photography to me is all about the journey, how I get there, and how I experience the adventure of being fully alive. It’s about having that feeling of not knowing what is going to happen, but without a doubt knowing that something unexpected is going to happen. Every time I go out shooting is totally different then the time before and totally different then the time after.
My photographic journey started during my days in community college. I was a computer technology major and thought that a photography course would be easy and less stressful. I soon realized that this is what I wanted to do for a living. There is nothing better or more relaxing then hiking out in the woods with my camera and spending time with nature. The next semester I made the huge decision to transfer to an art college and continue my photography education. I made myself a full time student and resident at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
The faculty at AIP brought out everything there is to know about photography. Learning about darkroom printing, portraiture, business, advertising, documentary, and all the other areas of photography was a real experience. I never felt that I connected one on one with any of the courses until I enrolled in the Nature class. I felt like I belonged somewhere and I’ve found my market.
Now that graduation has come, I am preparing myself to enter the “real world.” The nature photography market is the hardest to enter and I am prepared for the challenge. As long as I keep true to myself and keep true to nature, everything will work itself out.