The Journey
Becoming a photographer/videographer wasn’t something I had dreamed of growing up, but being in a creative environment. Maybe unconsciously I knew I would one day document the world as I’ve been doing since 2012. I had always taken pictures on family trips, but it wasn’t until a buddy from college offered me pizza and beer to take pictures of their infamous-locally famous “dubstep Tuesdays”. From here I began to explore what my camera could do. Eventually I found myself running out of class only to drive down to the river, hop into a wakeboard boat and photograph the riders. From here on I dabbled in various local gigs before landing an opportunity at a Dallas-local music festival, Lights All Night on a chilly New Years Eve night of 2012. I managed to get some pretty great shots, met the right person and next thing I knew I was flying to Miami for Ultra Music Festival. Since I was now listed on the media list I was receiving emails from various agencies (I knew this was a mass email, but figured why not respond and see!) and never would I have thought where that response from a Dutch dj’s agent would take me.
This is when the mention of videography came to be for me. This Dutch dj, Alvaro, mentioned they were coming back for a US Tour and that if shot video… of course my immediate response was “yes, of course I shoot video!” Maybe it was when I asked him what camera we’d be using on the tour did he question if I actually did, but they ran with it. I rented a Sony FS700 for the day to learn the camera as best I could and in November of 2013 I ventured on a tour with the guys.
I could continue on about where I’ve been fortunate to work, but what I can’t ever stress enough is that if you truly want something, you have to go out and try for it. All these people could have said no, but like my father always told me “if you don’t ask you don’t get”… Now of course they can always say no, but at least you tried!