I’ve been a commercial photographer since 2004, although I’m classically trained not in photography, but art direction. Ad school was like boot camp. The deadlines were excruciating and the critiques? Brutal. You sort of lose your sense of self in the craziness, but you do reinvent your work ethic, and grow thicker skin than a rhinoceros. I met and married an amazing and beautiful woman during those years who supported me in my new career, with patience and encouragement.

The momentum of graduating from Brand Center propelled me into the world of ad land. I didn’t like agency life, so I started seeking my own client work through the small creative boutique I founded: Storm The Beach Advertising. Over the next few years, I was blessed with a measure of success and the opportunity to work with truly amazing people. This gave me priceless experience as a commercial photographer and eventually as a director of photography on numerous videos and TV commercials.

In 2005, I was invited to teach advertising at Dallas Baptist University, and word spread quickly about my passion for photography, so they invited me to teach that too. I respectfully declined, fearing I wasn’t quite ready to stand at the head of a photography class, but the department chair insisted that “We’ve opened up a section of Photo 1 under your name and within an hour, it was full.” This might have been one of the scariest moments of my life, but it was also one of the most significant.

If you really want to learn something…teach it.

I won’t pretend my first semester teaching photography went off without a hitch. It was a circus. I sneaked into the darkroom the evening before class, to practice and freshen up my skills on the very fundamentals I planned to teach the following day.

Critiques were awkward, unproductive, sometimes combative, and other times, hilarious. The students definitely taught me more than I ever taught them, but we got through it. Then the bug really hit me. I fell deeply in love with shooting photos, not for advertising purposes, but just for the pure art and challenge of crafting an image. I read every book I could get my hands on.

In particular, I found “The Moment It Clicks” by Joe McNally and read it from cover to cover.

Then I found “The Hot Shoe Diaries” also by Joe McNally, which really pushed me to understand shaping light, using off-camera flash and “painting” with light.

For more than 10 years I continued into the whirlwind of shooting portraits with more and more “stuff.” I added gear every few months to my lighting toolkit. My hunger for lighting stills bled over into my video production and before I knew it I had gone as far as building my own production LED lights.

And then suddenly, after going at light speed for more than 15 years, I crashed and burned. I struggled to find joy in what I was doing. Sure it was a challenge, and my work more than paid the bills, but it lacked something. I had created such a pattern of working, pushing to meet deadlines, taking on more tasks, keeping so busy…it basically robbed me of the simple things of life.

In the midst of my whirlwind my family dynamic changed drastically too. My wife and I brought three wonderful children into the world. We built a house, then built it again…bigger. However I became so consumed by the machine of commercial work, I found myself virtually unplugged from meaningful life. And I also realized that years had passed since I had shot any photos simply for the joy of shooting—just for the art of it. I had lost myself.

But God.

I’m sure my hard headedness is to blame, but God didn’t let it go on forever. In 2019, he got my attention. It was a rare outing where my parents offered to watch all three kids and let me and my wife get away for a full day and night that brought me back. It was on that outing where I found my love for shooting landscape photography. (More on that in my blog post.)

Now I’m not letting go of my commercial work, but I am starting a new journey. It’s quite refreshing to shoot photos that aren’t trying to sell something, or make some connection to a product or service. It’s so good to just be out in a place where all of the art direction is already taken care of. The lighting is struck, shaped and ready to roll. I don't have to tweak every mark, or figure out blocking, or rehearse lines. All I have to do is just be there.

Now, I’ve got a new mission: to travel often and photograph as many of God’s wonders as I can in the remainder of my years. I want to capture his creation with the tools, experience and talent he’s blessed me with. I want to invite my wife and children into my adventure. And I want to invite you.

I’d be honored if you’d check back occasionally to see what I’ve added to my collection. I’d be thrilled if you subscribed to my YouTube channel if you’re interested in taking photos yourself. I’ll openly share the lessons I learn, techniques, successes and fails I encounter along the way.

Together, we’ll seek for new messages that God has for us through the thrill of adventure, chasing the sun and discovering new things. And hopefully a few wall-worthy images just may come to life too.