I love telling stories through photography. But when you look at one of my art images you may find it raises more questions than it answers. My mind’s eye was shaped by medieval lore when I was a child. I was homeschooled by my mother, and she encouraged us to read from an early age. I read ravenously and found great delight in stories about Robin Hood, Arthur and his Knights, the Lady of the Lake, and others. You can see that inspiration reflected in some of my work today.
My commercial work may be found at http://presidiostudios.com and my portrait work may be found at: http://bemomentous.com.
(Momentous Imaging is an entity/team I founded in 2015 that focuses on portrait photography, both traditional and mystical. Some of the photos on the site were taken by other members of my team.)
Biography
I am a photographer with a penchant for learning creative processes regardless of form. I come from a long-line of craftspeople. My great-grandfather pioneered greenhouses in Ohio before relocating his flower growing enterprise to FL. My late grandfather was a boatbuilder, my father a homebuilder. I spent many hours at my father’s side learning woodcraft.
My journey into photography started when I was 10 years old. My father had taken a picture of the moon, but in the foreground vehicles traversing a highway left light trails. I was captivated by that image. I promptly started a lawn mowing business to buy my first camera, and thus began my love of photography and my entrepreneurial drive. All because of a single photograph.
I have been a commercial photographer and videographer since the 1990’s. I’ve had the honor of shooting for household brands including Disney. While I shoot a variety of photography, I enjoy adventure photography, and mystical portraits the most. I believe a good commercial photograph should inspire a viewer to act. I believe an artful photograph should inspire a viewer to ask. An artful photograph should raise more questions than it answers. One of my recent favorite photos is one I call “Escaping the Dragon” a visual metaphor for life; essentially, courage to face the unknown, one-step-at-a-time, and escaping the dragons we all must fight in different ways at different times.
I attribute my love of nature to my “Granny” who took me on many day-long walks through the mountains as a young lad, teaching me about flora like Bloodroot, Ginseng, Ramps, and Sassafras. I loved collecting Sassafras and hoofing it back to the house where we’d make Sassafras tea.
This love of nature and adventure has really informed my work in promoting tourism in WV. My company Presidio Studios (now in our 15th year) won “Best Advertising Campaign” at the 2015 Governor’s Conference on Tourism. My family and I (wife Angela and our 3 children) discovered some natural bedrock waterslide formations on the Williams River in Pocahontas County and it has become an annual family tradition to go “Ride the Water slide”.
I have been a part of the digital photography revolution since its infancy, and only as recent as 2015 has the technology finally caught up to what I could do back with low-light scenes in the 90’s by hand-processing my own film. This development has re-awakened my love of low light photography.
Onward!
Other Creative Skills
Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Metalworking, Photography, Video, Woodworking
