The Artist

Having always had a passion for the creative arts, I knew I would end up in some form of creative work, I just had no idea the path I would take to get there. I grew up with an author for a mother who always pushed me to explore whatever avenue of creativity I wanted and a former Marine father who kept me grounded. I did dance, theatre, and singing as a child and had dreams of being on Broadway. I went to college for a Musical Theatre degree and after one semester decided college just wasn't for me. I wanted to be out there and DOING things, not reading about them in cold text books. After floundering for a few months with no real direction, I went in the exact opposite direction of creative and joined the United States Navy Reserves. I had figured that it would at least give me the opportunity to learn a new skill and maybe point me somewhere in life. Coming out of the navy as an Electronics technician gave me valuable skills, but still not anywhere in the creative direction I wanted to be in. While I used those skills to land myself a "normal" job, I found myself falling in love with photography. A friend of mine had asked me to model for her and in exchange she would teach me what she knows about photography. I quickly got myself my very own camera and on top of her teaching me what she knows, I began scouring the internet for anything and everything I could learn about photography. It never occurred to me that there were so many different kinds of photography. After being a second shooter for my friend at two weddings, I very quickly realized that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with wedding photography. It wasn't my cup of tea so she and I eventually parted ways and I began the search to find my niche in photography. And it wasn't until I started going full geek and cosplaying that I discovered Composite Photography. I saw my first composite and I knew it was something I wanted to learn. Back once more to the internet to learn anything and everything I could. The more composite work I did eventually led to an interest in graphic design and the rest is history!