Get to know the photographer

I started my art career as a painter. I spent 20 years as a pencil portrait artist before that learning and perfecting my ability to draw which also means learning all about lighting and contrast, and how to compose an image. I was finally convinced by a gallery owner to switch to painting where I took what I learned and added color. After only 5 paintings I was invited to do my first show at the Wyland Gallery in Laguna Beach. From there I went on to many other galleries and was named the Huntington Beach Acrylic Painter of the Year in 2014.

Just as things were really starting to take off, covid happened and art galleries were the firs thing to go away. At this point I already had 2 children and had been paying studios to take photos of my paintings so I could sell prints so I decided it would be in my best interest to buy my own camera and learn photography. Since I already understood how to compose a shot, and was already pretty familiar with photoshop, photography came pretty easy to me. I quickly found a new outlet for my creative needs and was being asked to do family portraits almost immediately. I found that I could go back to my roots and first love of portrait work and have been doing it ever since.

The main difference between me and other photographers is that making photos that are pieces of art is my number one goal. I'm not going to say, oh you hired me for 15 minutes only or I said I would edit 5 and I did and thats it. If I feel like we are really getting good shots and we can get more, I'm getting them. If there is another photo that would look a million times better if I edited it, then I am going to edit it!