My name is Jake Schuurmans, and I am a musician who likes to take pretty pictures. I currently thrive in Portland, Oregon.

I half-grew-up in Eugene, Oregon -- enough to have thoughts, but not enough to know what they mean. So instead of thinking, I played some instruments. I taught myself how to be a musician first, then I started taking lessons, which inevitably became too boring so I left them for Punk Rock -- somewhat around the time I started thinking.

I moved up to Portland, Oregon, when I was thirteen. I had been out of school for a few years due to illness in the family, and had remained out of school for a few more years until finally starting my freshman year in high school -- essentially bypassing 6 years of school, which I spent in thought, learning as much as I can about the world on my own -- which probably ended up teaching me twice or three times more than the school system would have. So I consider myself fortunate in that retrospect. I graduated high school in 2010.

I picked up photography about 3 years ago, but it's hard to put a date on it. It all started with my older brother. He bought himself a Nikon EM and a box load of expired film off eBay, and began perfecting his art. He soon upgraded to another Nikon 35mm film camera with a faster shutter speed, and left his EM on the shelf collecting dust. Not wanting to let it go to waste, I picked it up and started taking pictures myself. I became proficient (enough) with the camera and began taking portraits and photos for urban sports like Skateboarding and Parkour. In September of 2010 my exceedingly significant other gave me her old Canon Rebel XTI so I could start taking more photos more often. So here I am, with a shiny new Flickr account, taking more photos more often.