About Me

As a young teen exiting my failed freshman year of high school, my mother presented me with the opportunity to leave my troubled academic life behind. In pursuit of an alternative education, we would travel, using the history and culture of the United States as a more engaging learning experience. As a moody 14-year-old with disdain for the town in which I lived, I enthusiastically agreed.

In the spring before we left, I traveled every weekend to my grandparents' property to work. I weeded gardens, mowed lawns, and painted fences. Eventually, I traded the sum of my labor for my grandmother’s used Nikon D7100. In June of 2019, my mother and I packed our belongings and two cats into a tiny trailer, with our eyes set on the wide frontiers of northern Wyoming: Yellowstone.

The greater Yellowstone area, including Grand Teton National Park, became the ultimate canvas for my emerging eye. The diverse wildlife and landscapes offered an incredible range of subjects. The photographers famous in the area became early idols to me: Thomas Mangelsen and Charles Glatzer. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t wait to get up early. Chasing sunrises and finding wildlife defined my mornings, while long-exposure astrophotography filled my nights. Obsessed, I spent nearly every hour of my day either shooting or learning about photography.

After the season ended, my mother and I traveled south to the red-painted land of Utah. However, it was soon after that COVID halted our travels.

We moved in with my grandparents to quarantine in the small town of Quilcene, Washington. I enrolled in Quilcene K–12, where my junior class was composed of fewer than 25 people. It was perfect. The small town provided an ideal opportunity to grow my skill set. A small school struggling with the transition to online learning utilized my skills in media production to produce virtual events and concerts. I built connections with local politicians and filmmakers and found myself involved in nearly every film- or photography-related project in town.

It was at this point that I discovered something I loved more than photography: community. I was no longer the apathetic teen who failed his classes, I was receiving good grades and was involved in every way.