Photographer statement
I live in two photography worlds at the moment. For work, my pictures are guided by instutional brand guidelines for imagery. In my personal work, my primary subject interests are portraiture and documentary photography. I’m especially interested in documenting travel and details in urban environments. I favor high-contrast composition and processing, capturing rich color, and black and white photography. I gravitate toward images with strong shapes.
Getting started
I started taking pictures as a hobbyist. I don’t call myself a professional photographer, but I take photographs professionally in my current position.
I usually shoot with a Nikon D5100 for work. I use a D40, two instant cameras (Instax 210 and Instax Mini) and my iPhone and iPad for broader photography projects. I use Lightroom (Lr) and Photoshop (Ps) for processing.
In Fall 2012 I took a Basic Digital Photography class through Pittsburgh Filmmakers (opens in a new tab) (Pittsburgh, PA). The class covered the basics of photographic composition (using DSLR cameras) and Photoshop (with an emphasis on processing photos for printing ). In Spring 2013 I took the Intermediate Digital Photography class.
Mentoring newer photographers
While I’m still working to improve, I’m a teacher at heart. To help other, even newer, photographers, I taught a workshop series for colleagues at NC State. The goal was to help them develop shooting and processing skills so they could contribute to event coverage as department employees. A complementary goal was to help them build skills and confidence for personal projects. We covered composition basics, NC State-specific guidelines and workflow/processing using Lr and Ps.
Professional portfolio
These samples were shot for NC State’s Prestage Department of Poultry Science. The NC State brand guidelines for images (opens in a new tab) favor bright, bold photography.
Most of these examples are cropped to 16:9 for use on NC State websites. The portraits were featured images for stories introducing the subject. The individual animal photos are also used for department publications, promotional materials and websites.
NC State photo walks
To promote community and connection for campus photographers, I formed a photo walk group at NC State for faculty and staff. The group met once a month to take photo walks and discuss photography-related topics specific to NC State’s image guidelines. Walks featured a specific challenge facing campus photographers: low-light, event photography, mixed lighting, camera issues, etc.
The group shifted to an online support group in response to COVID-19. Though I’ve left NC State, the group plans to continue meeting, especially once it is safe to meet again in person.
The group is open to any employee of the university who makes pictures as part of their job duties. Group members include FT, PT, temp, ad-hoc and other photographers with a variety of skills levels using a variety of camera types.
To support the group, I created and managed a Google Group (mailing list), Drive folder (for sharing photos and ideas) and member registration form.
Many of the group members work directly with students. There’s interest in a similar group for student photographers.
Personal portfolio
Portraits – horizontal
This gallery gathers horizontally oriented portraits.
Subjects include family members, self portraits, colleagues and others encountered at events and out walking.
Portraits – vertical
This gallery gathers vertically oriented portraits.
Like the horizontal gallery, subjects include family members, colleagues and others encountered at events and out walking. I’m lucky to spend a lot of time with other photographers and enjoy photographing them.
Outdoors and details
This gallery has a mix of orientations and subject matter. I capture details and some architecture when traveling or otherwise out and about.
