My Life Behind the Lens
If I could spend the rest of my life traveling to the world’s farthest reaches chasing the perfect picture, I would. Until I can accomplish that, I spend my days sharpening my photography chops and biding my time trying to document the most interesting things in life.
While I’ve had the opportunity to travel somewhat extensively in my life, there are many places in the world that I’ve yet to cross off of my bucket list. In between trips, I do my absolute best to appreciate what others might consider to be mundane. I take thousands of pictures a year. Most of them are far from perfect, but I believe that beauty lies in imperfection. It’s hidden in the history and echoes in the grittiest of city streets. It’s hidden in obscure angles, the setting sun or the glint in your child’s eye. If you look closely enough, it’s present in the simplest of things. You just have to take the time to look for it.
I feel compelled to take pictures. I’m not exactly sure why, although I attribute much of this motivation to the birth of my daughter in 2002 and the realization that my own mortality was an inevitability. That sounds silly when I say it out loud, but that was my “AHA” moment when the world changed for me. I also know that one day my memory will probably fail me and I don’t want to forget the life I shared with my family.
I hope that one day my daughter (and her future family) looks back on the moments I captured with fondness and she remembers a place or a point in time that will never exist again but for a brief fleeting moment captured in my pictures. And I want her to remember that we were there, at that exact point in time, together. They say you can’t take it with you when you go, but I’m going to do my best to leave something memorable when I do. So this is going to serve as my digital footprint on the universe that will survive me.
So with no pretense I live my life behind the lens, sharing my journey with you one picture at a time in hopes that a picture I take might bring you back to a special place and time. Most importantly, I hope I leave an indelible mark on the world somewhere along the way.