So much of my creative journey started with photography; My love of light and how it creates storylines began with photography.

I grew up in rural areas of Iowa and Texas. The first camera I accessed was one of those old polaroids with square flashes on top that would turn after they popped. The flashes and film were expensive, so there was a strict limit on how many photos I could take.  

Paper and pencil were less expensive, so this was the time that I also started drawing.

During High School, we were living in a small town in Iowa. I saved the money earned by working at the local ice cream shop and bought my first SLR. It was an Olympus, and I shot only in black and white.

My dad was a Radio Announcer and a private pilot who gave flying lessons.

Very early one morning, he woke me up. A train derailed not far from where we lived. He was going up to see it in an airplane and told me to grab my camera.  

I took photos of the crash that Associate Press later published. I used the proceeds to buy the equipment for my first darkroom.

I learned so much from my early exposure to black and white photography. It was unlike today, where you take 100 images and crop them in 100 digital ways. Everything had to be perfect when you pressed the shutter -  it taught me about light and how to convey the story or feeling through its composition.

It's impossible to count the number of photos I have taken since then - traveling, my family, senior portraits, weddings, pets . . . everyday life. And even though editing options are abundant, I still resist the temptation to over-process the photo. Instead, I think it should be correct and say what you want it to say the moment you take it.