Biography

QUICK BIOGRAPHY
Independent software consultant/architect, professional photographer and retired professional soldier. I have a wife that has tolerated me since March of 1981 and a miniature Schnauzer named Max that has more personality than all of us put together.

INTERESTS
I am a wedding and portrait photographer. I love the interaction with clients, listening and understanding what they want and then creating really magical moments with my camera. It is so gratifying to hear the ooooos and aaaaaaahs when  a client sees their images for the first time, it really makes it all worthwhile to know that I got it, I captured the image they wanted.

I am also a software engineer, an enterprise application integration architect, and I have a great deal of passion for creating applications essentially from thin air. I have spent many hours learning this skill set and find it a creative outlet as well, just not as asethically beautiful as my photography.

EXTENDED BIOGRAPHY
I am a professional photographer. I run my own studio and specialize in capturing the details, emotions and strong interpersonal relationships which flow like the tide at every wedding. It is the strong feelings of love and the tension of the unexpected that is yet to come that are the at the core, the very essence and purpose, of every wedding. Capturing the expression of these emotions in the faces and in the eyes of my clients and their guests is the challenge at each wedding; a challenge I relish, a challenge that kicks my game up a notch to a level where I excel as a photographer.

I burn blisters on my shutter finger while I search through the viewfinder for the perfect pose, the perfect light falling across a nose, a pair of eyes or that perfect expression that captures the personality and spirit of the client; the shot, the keeper - the image that encapsulates the event.  It takes a lot of shots to get the few that will meet with a client's approval; I shoot an average of 800 to 1,200 images per event; trust me, no one is more critical of my images than me and I make sure that you will not have to compromise, instead you have lots of options; all of which will be good.

My real education came from a voracious appetite for knowledge and literature, lessions learned from the responsibility of leadership positons while at a young age and even more is self-taught and borne from simple curiosity. I don't have interests, I have INTERESTS; if you know what I mean.

I have stood on five continents and had my breath taken away by the beauty of God's green earth. I have learned that people are people, it's really that simple. Cultures are different, religions are different, language is different; but, at the core, we are all very much the same. I will say there is so much more about each of us that is similar than there will ever be that makes us different. We all care about our families, our loved ones and we all have a passion for life and some of us are lucky enough to earn a living doing what we are passionate about; that's me, the guy with the camera around his neck.

I spent my youth in the US Army being all I could be. The first eight years of my twenty year military career were spent in airborne ranger battalions with the finest men I have ever met. I could never adequately describe the respect, admiration and trust I had for comrades in arms so I will not even try. They know who they are, how much they will always mean to me and that I will always be there for them - anytime, anywhere, no excuses, just call.

My formal education consists of a a Masters of Information Systems Management and a Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems. I specialize in enterprise application integration (EAI) software design and development and I am the founder of a software consulting company that has been operating and selling its services to Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies for more than four years.

Before becoming an independent businessman, I spent five years as a senior systems engineer and logistics engineer for one of the world's largest retailers (hint, they sell a lot of hammers and seem to like the color orange) in their Global Logistics IS department, and another two years as a senior consultant for a major supply chain execution software company.

I have already mentioned that in a previous life, I was a career soldier who spent the first eight of a twenty year career in airborne ranger units and the remainder in increasing roles of responsibility in light infantry units training and operating among the nations of the Pacific rim. For those who can decipher an MOS, mine was 11B5V.

I am fiercely proud of my family and my extended family. I know that I married way out of my league and Barbara saying yes was the greatest achievement of my life. I am very blessed to have some incredibly intelligent and witty friends and I love them like brothers and sisters.

I recently lost my father at the age of eighty and the love of my family and friends helped me cope and adjust to a world that had lost one of its greatest inhabitants. You know who you are and God bless you each and every one.