I was born with a camera in my hand. A lot of my early pictures are marred by a fat little finger covering part of the viewfinder, but I've come a long way since then. My first niche became nature photography because of my constant exposure to it growing up on our family farm, volunteering with nature conservancy's in the southeast, and spending summers at our camp in the Adirondack State Park. Even when I was 8 years old, I would wake up long before everyone else just so that I could capture the light of the golden hour.

As I grew older, I began to branch out. In high school I took Intro to Photography, Advanced Photography, and Independent Photography. In the classes I learned to use film and how my cameras actually worked. This is also where my transition away from nature photography began, when in class we would pose for each other for portraits while learning how to use lighting. Whenever my friends came over we would do photoshoots, and I experimented with different poses to tell them, ways to turn their chin to catch the light, etc. I started to love fashion.

My senior year is when my pictures started to transform. The summer before I attended the Young Digital Photographers Workshop at Maine Media College, where I was exposed to lots of other teenagers who loved the same thing I did. In my class we took mostly portraits, editing and critiquing each others images in the morning, shooting in the afternoon, and then attending presentations by nationally renowned photographers at night. The counselors would often find us up late at the motel messing around with glowsticks and long shutter speeds. By having professionals and other kids view my images and critique them with me, I learned a lot.

This new knowledge I had of photography propelled me along my senior year. I won a Gold Key for my portfolio in the New York State Scholastic Art Awards. In addition I entered some contests to see what I could do, and won a Single Light Source Portraiture Contest by the internationally known company B&H Photo and Video. My prize was an Elinchrom monolight and umbrella as well as a Manfrotto lightstand. I haven't stopped using them since.

Recently, I took several group shoots of some girls at school so that they had professional images for graduation parties and before college. I also took promotional images for Ashley Freiberg Racing. This summer I have been working for a local photographer, modernizing his business by putting it on Facebook, updating his website, and finding new ways to advertise, all the while absorbing his experience and knowledge. I've learned how to discretely look over a model while having a conversation with them, how to use many source lighting, continued to improve my editing skills, and learned practical things such as framing, matting, and dry matting.

I want to find an internship with a fashion photographer where I can learn as much as possible, and be exposed to the business as much as possible. My favorite quote is by Ansel Adams..

“I never know in advance what I will photograph, I go out into the world and hope I will come across something that imperatively interests me. I am addicted to the found object. I have no doubt that I will continue to make photographs till my last breath.” ~Ansel Adams

I often spend time looking up quotes that describe my photographs or philosophies, and am inspired by others work in magazines, online, movies, and galleries. Photography is my sole passion and dream, and I'm going to follow it.

Resume

-Won Schulte Industries photography calendar contest (and international equipment company)

-Awarded the Gold Key for my portfolio in the New York State Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

-Won the Single Light Source Portraiture Contest by B&H Photo and Video

-Ran my own greeting card business since I was 10 selling my images

-Worked part time for local Gene Gissin Photography and Custom Framing

-Awarded a full scholarship to and attended the Young Digital Photographers workshop at Maine Media College

-Proficient in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom