As a must-have for most websites, here is a little about me. Well, I think this is more of a journey to today, but I believe it best sums up who I am concerning the world of photography.

My earliest memory of taking pictures was around 1st or 2nd grade when I was taking photos during school trips with an old Kodak Ektralite (yes, I had to look this up to remember the model). It certainly did not take the most incredible pictures, and it was always fun to remember not to put my finger in front of the lens.

After going through a roll of 110 film, you would ship it off to Kodak in the mail and then, poof, it would come back. I enjoyed going to my mailbox and finding a new roll of film and my developed pictures.

Fast forward several years and I remember being in middle school. There was an after-school photography club. My parents were never that big into helping me or wanting to deal with after-school programs, so it was a hassle. I grew up in a small town, and we were part of a school system that catered to several towns in the area.

I remember getting a project for this club to take black-and-white photographs, and I think I did an okay job. There was even a day when a few of us got a glimpse about how to develop film in the darkroom.

This club didn't last long for me for the reasons I listed earlier. So, not being 16 and having no access to the after-school program, I never proceeded further.

My next real photography memory was getting a digital camera that stored the pictures on a floppy drive. It might have been a digital Sony Mavica, and I remember being so excited to take photographs and not having to get the film developed.

With my wife (girlfriend at the time), I had gotten back into taking photographs, again with no real seriousness but more of a documentary style of mine (and her) life. So, having a digital camera was a life changer. It sure took poor-quality photographs, but you couldn't beat the convenience. We were poor, so saving money on film and development was a game changer. Since I was in the IT field, floppy disks were straightforward to come by.

I would say it was around the mid to late 2000s that I decided to take my photography a bit more seriously and purchased a Canon 70D, and boy, I felt like I had taken a giant leap forward. From here on out, I certainly took my photography more seriously with various upgrades to help achieve my vision.

With my mentor's help, I have achieved what is close to my photography style, HDR panoramas. My current goal is to find different ways to photograph a scene, which is how I approach the craft these days. I still dabble in film as a hobby, which you can see on this website. Although I still do not develop my film, everything you see here has been scanned and edited by yours truly.

Photography doesn't pay the bills now, allowing me to pursue whatever subject/topic strikes my desire. Maybe this will no longer be true someday, but it'll be on my terms. Does that officially make me an artist/photographer?

Thank you for taking the time to learn who I am and how I got here.