My love for filmmaking became evident in high school when an ordinary video assignment on the Vietnam War grew into an absurdly over-ambitious short film and although the result wasn’t great, the enjoyment was. Since then I’ve been driven to develop my skill-set as a director of photography; focusing my approach to cinematography on building a look-and-feel for projects that is appealing to the viewer and that supports—and expands upon—the director’s vision.

I studied photography, cinematography and film technology formally at Full Sail University in 2005 but, like all creative and technical fields, the education for a director of photography is always ongoing. My professional aspiration is to always stay versed on the latest filmmaking advances available to cinematographers in order to better build on techniques and creative approaches that have effectively moved audiences since the birth of cinematography. Perhaps the latest example of this is the emergence of virtual production which has converged breakthroughs in LED display technology, video gaming computing and digital cinematography—a development I’m excited about as a virtual production director of photography because of the new possibilities for groundbreaking visuals in both narrative projects and commercial productions, and the increased opportunities that have come with the virtual production workflow to develop divergent skills and multidisciplinary collaborations.

I’ve been fortunate over the years with opportunities to build a director of photography portfolio that covers a diverse list of high-profile commercial clients and brands. Being a cinematographer for commercials—and marketing content in general—is not entirely different than for other formats but it does present unique dynamics that, with experience, a cinematographer can become proficient with. I take pride in laboring to balance my own artistic aspirations and personal vision with the ambitions of the brand, the agency creatives and the director—with the end goal of creating an aesthetic that is a synergy of all those parts while being executable, to a high degree, under budget.

On the narrative and feature documentary side, my cinematography credits also cover a varied number of genres and platforms. And I have also been the director of photography on music videos for several major labels like Sony Music and Universal Music Group. I think the diversity of content and genres in my director of photography reel is representative of a willingness to adapt to different styles and circumstances to best serve the project; as well as an insatiable curiosity for branching out and experimenting with the medium.