Born in Rockford, Illinois. Attended college in Dubuque, Iowa. Moved to Japan in September of 2004, been here since.

My first foray into photography was my grandfather's Polaroid. It was the coolest thing and I always felt that he was some sort of mechanical genius whenever he popped it open.

My first camera was also a Polaroid. I began taking shots with a manual camera while in high-school as a part of the yearbook staff. Moved on to college and wrote/took pictures for the school paper. This was my first experience with a digital camera. At the time I thought that they, along with their floppy disks, were going to be a fad. I've never claimed to know too much about trends and technology....

I bought my first digital camera (Fuji Finepix) for about $500. It had a whopping 4.25 megapixels. Awesome.

Although I had taken many pictures before I came to Japan they had only really been snapshots. I like to think that I got into photography when I came to this country. I was lucky enough to stumble across an old manual Fuji film camera one day on the beaches of the Mississippi before I arrived over here... that camera combined with a whole new land full of surprises and new scenes got me going.

Since then I like to think I have improved a bit.

I moved back to digital in August '06 and I couldn't be happier.

I joined flickr because I love the community aspect as well as the chance to talk shop with others. If you do by chance look over my pictures I ask that you be honest and brutal. I love feedback and am never offended. Advice is always welcome!

Thanks for the time, good luck and God bless...