ARtist Statement

Ever since I was ten, I enjoyed going to LAX to watch  the airplanes land and take off. This passion has grown into a love for travel. Out of this love of aviation and travel has grown another passion for photography. Whether it was the ostrich farm in Solvang, California to Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, my love for photography has grown from Japan Airlines 777 arriving at LAX. I still do love spending a day at LAX taking photos of arriving and departing aircraft. A lot of my photos are  airplanes arriving and departing from Los Angeles as well as Washington DC. Some photos featured are animal photos from Costa Rica, ostriches, sunsets, and the Grand Canyons. My work connects to the work of Stephen Wilkes because we both capture people and places. His work tells the story of people and the place they are at. My work also touches on the same ideas. I enjoy capturing both places and especially with my aviation photography, the journey one person takes to get to where they need to go.
The first time I ever took a photo was at LAX on a fourteen-year-old Canon camera. I currently use a Nikon D5600 with three lenses 18-55mm, 70-300mm, and 18-140mm. The type of lens depends on the setting. The 70-300mm is good for plane spotting and when I need to zoom in. 18-55mm is a good wide-angle lens and was used when I was at the Grand Canyon. The 18-140mm is my workhorse, being able to capture wide-angle while also being able to zoom in. An element of art highlighted in many of my photos is shape. All my photos focus around an object and I try to capture each object's unique shape. Whether it is an airplane with its wings and long body to monkeys in the Costa Rican jungle. Everything has its own unique shape.
My inspiration for my photography comes from my passion for travel. All of these photos tell a story of a place. Whether it is the Grand Canyon with its natural history and the history of the people or the plane and the destination. All the photos tell a story and it is my inspiration to try and tell that story. When people look at my photos, I want it to inspire them. I want people to be inspired to go out and go somewhere new.