I find photographing flowers is very similar to photographing food. I've been a commercial food photographer for over 30 years all while doing my fine art photography on the side. Recently I've been making the transition from the commercial world to the fine art world. For my 35mm gear I use Canon - an R5 with Canon 100mm macro, Canon 65mm macro, Canon 90mm TS, a very old Manfrotto Mini Salon studio stand and a Wemacro rail for focus stacking while tethered to Capture One Pro.For larger formats I have a Phase One P45+ with an adaptor for a Sinar P2 and a 105mm lens and a medium format Fuji 680 setup with an adapter for the P45+ along with a Horseman VCC Pro with various enlarger lenses and an adapter for the R5.Lighting is all incredibly old Speedotron strobe packs and heads. But they keep on poppin!  

I have been a freelance commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years. I was based in the Los Angeles area for 25 years and moved back to the Mid-Atlantic area in March of 2020 to take care of my aging parents.I’ve been shooting since I was 8 years old. After getting my second photography degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1993, I starting shooting professionally in the fields of product and food photography for advertising work while also doing my fine art work on the side.I have always been obsessed with flowers. The first time I photographed a flower was at Longwood gardens in Pennsylvania when I was about 12 years old in days of film. Then later in my commercial career I landed two high end grocery store clients that both had really great floral departments so I was able to work with my two loves of food and flowers for many years.In the summer of 2023 this obsession with flowers really consumed me. This was triggered right around the time my father died. Towards the end of his life, every day was a challenge. I coped with the stress and all the things that caring for aging parents in poor health brings by surrounding myself with as many flowers that I could get my hands on.I am so lucky to live very close to a flower farmer. I was buying her flowers every single week for months. I now have flowers in the studio almost every day. They are my stress relief and such a huge source of peace and joy. I fall in love with every new type of flower I get to photograph. They are all little ladies to me and I am taking their portraits to capture their beauty forever, though they might only be with me for a few days.Studies have proven that looking at flowers triggers those happy chemicals in the brain. My goal with my fine art work is to do the same. If I can transfer that same peaceful, happy feeling I get when taking flower portraits to the viewer of my images, then my job is done.

Professional roles: Blogger, Lecturer, Photographer, Teacher

Location: United States