I have been aware of photography since I was a little kid; that is to say I have had a profound attraction to visual forms of communication. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a huge fan of National Geo or LIFE. I love coffee table books and full color magazines on almost any topic. I just love to imagine, contemplate, fantasize, and explore. I don’t remember my first camera, though it was likely an old 110 that I got at a garage sale or from my grandma’s second hand store. I love tools and that’s what cameras are for me, a tool for capturing or creating an image. Like any other tool the product of its usage has the ability to arouse emotion or communicate an ethic or even tell a story. Communication has to be one of the most important and underdeveloped skills set before the human race. “What are we saying?” because even in the absence of words, a perpetual dialogue continues. As a photographer I feel a strong responsibility to recognize and evaluate what I am communicating through my photos. My ethics and values should be appropriately reflected through my work. To take a picture is to say “hey look at this.” I value originality, creativity, peace, beauty, fairness, love, understanding, diversity, innovation, and ingenuity to name a few. These have become my ethics because I believe they are also God’s ethics. I see these ethics applied as I learn more about Jesus; who I believe came from God and is God. I strive to live up to these ethics, though I frequently miss the mark. My prayer is that --with God’s help-- my life might reflect these ethics more daily and that I might use my camera to communicate their value in a world where they are often rare or hard to see.