My interest in photography began with trying to understand my father’s Minolta SLR camera. I had a natural interest in the communicative power of images and their use in documenting current events. The prospect of becoming a photographer initially crossed my mind as a high school photography student.
At first, I thought I would major in business, like many of my friends at St. Cloud State University, but I was drawn toward the Mass Communications Department, thanks to an early elective course. I became a staff photographer at the University Chronicle, and from that point on I have been using the communicative power of images to tell stories.
I have been a professional photojournalist since 2003, when I worked as a freelance news photographer for a year before joining the St. Cloud Times as an online photographer. Most recently, I was a staff photographer for Minnesota Sun Newspapers, which covers the Twin Cities suburbs. I produced visual content for six newspapers covering 10 communities, and assisted three other newsgroups to provide content for the company’s 41 suburban newspapers.
Combining audio and my still images, I have created multimedia slideshows for online storytelling. I have also shot and edited video projects as newspapers turned to the Internet for new methods of storytelling.
Through it all, I am constantly amazed by the ability that a still photograph has to tell a story, illicit a feeling and create a memory, by capturing a fleeting moment in a fraction of a second.
