Combining creativity and technical precision for professional artistry.
If you like my work then don’t hesitate to reach out.
Conceptualization through previsualization. For any photoshoot, I like to come up with a story behind the images to be taken — figure out a theme and a style for the scene.
Mood goes hand-in-hand with story, and helps to further illustrate the themes at play. Drama? Light and airy? Vibrant, clean, grungy....so many choices, and I love exploring them all.
Seriously. And no, I don't know where it all goes. I'll thank my parents for my good genes that I can eat without much consequence...yet. But life's too short anyway — eat the cake.
I believe that visual imagery is a powerful form of communication at a visceral level. Humans are visual creatures — we are drawn to sights that stimulate our minds and evoke an emotional response within us.
As we've become flooded with stimuli through the prolific rise of social media, I endeavor to produce images that ignite the senses and draw the viewer in — helping them give pause for a moment of their hectic day to lose themselves in an escape from reality.
By taking the time to think through the process as a whole — conceptualizing ideas but also contemplating the end result and use of the images I create, as well as the possible problems that can be encountered in post production, I can streamline my processes and minimize issues down the pipeline. This allows me to spend my time wisely both in the capture and retouching of images, and focus more productively without having to backtrack or make repeated edits later. Having more time to focus on the details ultimately allows me to fine-tune the important aspects of the process and create imagery that really shines.
I've been exceedingly blessed to have acquired a fairly well-rounded experience working with a variety of subject matter, but my favorites would have to be:
I'll be frank — I'm a foodie at heart and utterly love the transcendental journey of trying new and unexpected flavors. Translating that experience through a visual stimulus brings me as much delight as eating the product does!
I feel invigorated by the challenges presented retouching fashion images — removing wrinkles from complexly patterened fabrics, correcting color to accurately portray products, and otherwise meticulously nitpicking the photos ignites both the creative and analytical sides of my brain simultaneously.
I love crafting a scene from objects to create a mood and tell a story. Antiques especially inspire me as they have such a history already imbued within their essence — finding ways to illuminate that both intrigues and humbles me.
At an early age, the ability to convey meaning and information through visual imagery fascinated me. Ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up while I was in grade school and my answer was, "An Artist." While I hadn't yet narrowed down my field of interest, I'd always known I wanted to do something creative. It was years later, in my teens, that I finally found a direction. Having bought my very own camera at twelve years of age with my paper delivery earnings, I was obsessed with taking pictures and scrapbooking my memories. One evening in particular, as I sat working on compiling a scrapbook while indulging in my second obsession of that time period — watching Wild Discovery on the Discovery Channel — I had an epiphany. I decided I wanted to become a wildlife photographer when I was but fifteen years of age, though my plans ultimately deviated a bit as I later came to realize my true passion lay not only in composing and taking photos, but also in the artistic, creative, and even technical execution of photo retouching. I'm as passionate about photo retouching as I am the capture of an image, and the technical side of my brain takes immense pleasure in analyzing and understanding the nuances of color and how it translates through print.
In 2006, I earned an Associates Degree for photography from the Antonelli Institute of Art & Photography. Six days after graduating, I began my professional career at Simone Associates Inc., a commercial photography studio in South Central, PA, where I was employed for five years as a Prepress Retoucher, gaining invaluable experience as my boss was an absolute master of lighting and was the perfect blend of fun-loving and professional. I have been fortunate to be able to utilize that experience and my skills as my career continued forward, working as a Photo Retoucher, Photographer, and later Lead Photographer.