Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Vesperteen Promo Shoot

May 12, 2021

My buddy Colin Rigsby has a music project called Vesperteen, and he reached out to me to do a shoot last month. Colin and I go way back. His wife was friends with my wife before I ever met her. I attended his wedding, did several shoots with his old band, House of Heroes, and shared many great moments over the past two decades. It was great to catch up, shared some laughs, and create some beautiful art. We created a wide range of vibrant, kinetic images in promotion of his new music…

What is Time?

May 6, 2021

I did some more time explorations in my latest shoot with Katy. I began with the same technique I explored in my last session, shooting long exposures with multi-strobing lights…

The Descent: Capturing Movement with Dancer Sophie Bolton

May 3, 2021

Whenever I am planning a shoot with a dancer I face the challenge of coming up with fresh ways to capture their movement. Sometimes I put my camera on a tripod and use a long exposure to capture their fluidity. Or I might have the dancer stand still while I move my camera, which creates a similar-yet-different effect. Or I might fire a strobe multiple times during an exposure in order to crisply capture how they move through a space. In this shoot with dancer Sophie Bolton I opted to do it all…

Owning My Scars

April 30, 2021

I was born with a condition called sagittal craniosynostosis. It basically means that part of my skull was prematurely fused and lacked the soft spot needed for head growth. It’s a fairly common defect but if it goes untreated it can cause deformity, seizures, or even death. Though I now know how lucky I was to be able to receive that surgery, I grew up ashamed of my scar. As many of you can likely identify with, anything that makes you stand out from other kids makes you a potential target to bullies. I was called so many names as a kid that I feared ever having my hair cut short…

Mylar Skull

April 29, 2021

Another of my mylar explorations. This is a 7-image sequence shooting reflections on mylar. All in-camera effects.

Photographic Mimics: Diptychs of People and Nature

April 22, 2021

I love symmetry. And I don’t just mean in my compositions. One of my main goals when it comes to editing and laying out my photos is to find parallels between images so that there’s a symmetry (or mimicry) between the pairing. When I do make the connection between a pair of otherwise unrelated images (such as a portrait and an image of a plant) it soothes something deep in me.

My Story: A Short Documentary by Brandon Goodyear

April 19, 2021

Brandon Goodyear is a local videographer that has an ongoing series focusing on makers and what motivates them to do what they do. Over the span of a month he captured a couple of my photo shoots, me climbing at my home gym, and me watering my vast collection of plants. We also got deep and chatted about my journey through trauma and where I find inspiration as an artist. Check it out.

The Many Ways to Photograph a Dancer: Shoot with Ballerina Caitlin Valentine

April 16, 2021

I’ve been working with dancers for over a decade and I still struggle to come up with fresh ways of capturing their movement in a way that conveys their power and grace. But this challenge doesn’t keep me from trying…

Evanescence: The Bitter Truth Photo Shoot

March 30, 2021

Back in November I drove down to Nashville to photograph @amylee for her upcoming @evanescenceofficial album, The Bitter Truth. I set up a makeshift studio in her dining room and knocked out a broad range of images for the album art, various magazine spreads, and images for streaming platforms…

Tryzdin Grubbs (American Idol contestant) Photo Shoot

March 26, 2021

Tryzdin Grubbs is an uber-talented, 15-year old singer from Columbus. He also just happened to get accepted onto the latest season of American Idol. Before the episode had even aired, Tryzdin popped by my studio for a photo shoot. This was our third shoot in as many years and this one was the most dynamic yet. We’ve both grown quite a bit in our respective crafts and so it was cool to see what new things we were bringing to the shoot, from a personal and professional standpoint. Here are just a few of the different looks that we knocked out in the brief but efficient, one-hour shoot.

From the Archives: Underoath, Erase Me Photoshoot (Behind the Scenes)

March 18, 2021

In January of 2018 I met up with the fellas from Underoath in Los Angeles to shoot photos for their yet-to-be-released album, Erase Me. My friends at Tension Division were designing the album and merch and basically every facet of the upcoming album cycle. Not only did I need to shoot individual photos of each member using several different in-camera techniques such as multiple exposure, shutter drag, and projector for the album art, but I also needed to shoot promo photos for Spotify and images for an upcoming issue of Alternative Press. The shot list was aggressive for a one-day shoot but I had the added challenge of shooting all this in the living room of an Airbnb while Brandon, the creative director, was remotely directing everything from their home in Ohio. It was a tall order but I was up for it…

Kind of Blue: Exploring Black Masculinity with Khalil

March 15, 2021

Khalil and I had been planning this shoot for the better part of a year. He reached out to me last June and said he had an idea for a shoot that he wanted to explore. He knew that he wanted to use chains in the images as well as explore themes of black masculinity. When he arrived at my studio one morning last month and began to lay out the chains that he brought with him, I immediately recognized that we’d need much more to really make the images work. I suggested that we make a quick run to the hardware store, and he agreed. We ended up leaving the store with every inch of chain that they had…

Behind the Scenes Photo Shoot with Ronnie Radke of Falling in Reverse

March 8, 2021

Last month I photographed Ronnie Radke of Falling in Reverse at his home in LA. I set up a makeshift studio in his dining room and we knocked out six scenarios in just under three hours…

Trauma Survivor Portraits with Sanctuary Night

March 2, 2021

In 2017 I began a photo series exploring trauma. As a survivor myself it was healing for me to connect with others who were on a similar journey. Leading up to a shoot, I’d have subjects send me several photos or a video that represented the period of trauma in their lives. When they arrived we’d sit down and chat about their story for a while. Once they were ready I’d load up their images into a slideshow, project the images onto them, and take their portrait.

After doing several of these sessions I discovered that they were were more than an opportunity for me to connect and heal alongside other survivors but that the sessions themselves were offering closure for the subjects. They were given the opportunity to own their whole story— even the most terrifying parts— and share it with the world, thus stripping the terror of its power.

This session was particularly moving for me. I met all these women through @sanctuary_night, which is a local nonprofit that provides food, shelter, and legal services for trafficked women. Additionally, this organization is providing leadership development and employment opportunities for women who have successfully exited "the life." These survivor leaders boldly opened up to me, sharing many painful moments of their past with me and my camera. Their images depicted things like mugshots, buildings where they were trafficked, or their abusers. They held nothing back. These women were now clearly in control of their own narratives. To witness that level of boldness and vulnerability was sobering and humbling. I’m very grateful for this collaboration.

*all images used with permission

Remote Shoot with Marissa Nadler

February 28, 2021

I’ve been a big fan of Marissa Nadler. since I first heard her music in 2006, and have been loving the opportunities to collaborate with her, even if it’s remotely. Though I’ve shot her through FaceTime a couple times before, this was the first time that I used the in-app camera. Before I would project the call onto my studio wall and shoot through different materials. The thing that concerned me was trying to figure out how to upsize the small files.

In my last post I explained how I’ve been photographing prints in water. After doing a few experiments I wondered if it might work to do a FaceTime shoot and as a workaround to the low camera resolution, make a small print and reshoot it in water. It worked better than I’d hoped. I was pleasantly surprised to see that an 8x10” print looked more than decent. By the time I added water ripples to the mix, the shots looked amazing. I also had so many images that I liked, apart from the water shot, that I included a handful.

This is Water

February 25, 2021

For decades I’ve adored 4AD album art from the 80s and 90s. The genius team behind the photography and design was Nigel Grierson and Vaughan Oliver, who operated under the name 23 Envelope. They were responsible for iconic album art of This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Pixies, and many more. Over the years I’ve tried over and over again to mimic some of the effects that I saw used in their photography, but my experiments always came up short. Much to my delight, my latest photographic exploration is the closest to their aesthetic, by far…

Fancher X Feinknopf

February 22, 2021

Last week I had the privilege of photographing photographers. Great ones, at that. Brad Feinknopf is a legend in my neck of the woods, and to be asked to photograph him and his team in my style was a great honor.

Cyberpunk Flapper Girl and Other Photographic Mashups

February 19, 2021

It’s a rare occasion when I do a team collaboration on a personal shoot. I typically prefer to work directly with the model, having them bring their own wardrobe and arrive with their hair and makeup already done. It not only saves time and is easier to coordinate but I also love the challenge of coming up with a cohesive theme for the shoot, basing my techniques, lighting, and color palette on the items that they brought with them. That said, when I do get to work with a great team such as this, I can see how the images really elevate…

Color and Shape Collab with Larry Robertson

February 16, 2021

Larry Robertson is a clothing designer, stylist, poet, and many other things. Everytime we collaborate we walk away with fire. He came by my studio yesterday and brought with him a bunch of outfits. We vacillated between shooting and chatting, discussing life, creativity, and navigating the ever-changing world…

Playing with Bold Colors and Silhouettes

February 10, 2021

This was a fun, quick little color study with Erin Hurt, who did her own hair, makeup, and wardrobe styling. I wanted to focus on color and silhouette, so I had her select items with interesting shapes, like suit jacket or an A-line dress…