What defines you?

My faith, family & friends and my love for the professional photographic community.  Now, let’s back up that statement.  Born Catholic, still Catholic.  As a photographer/editor of a small weekly newspaper, my dad hired my mom as a reporter in the same city I still currently live in.  They had three sons.  I was the middle one.  Years later, I took my future wife to her high school prom.  46 years later we are still dancing!  We have a wonderful son, daughter, son in law and grandson.  I fell in love with photography as a sophomore in high school with my first camera, a Minolta SRT 101.  My firsts job out of high school was working in a Fotomat.  I have been in the photographic industry ever since. I now enjoy photography as a FAA certified remote drone pilot.

What are five words your teammates would use to describe you?

“He can never remember crap.”

If you could only use one camera for the rest of your life, which would it be?

I would use two.  Hasselblad SWC with a digital back on the ground & a DJI Inspire 3 drone for aerials. 

Describe the journey that brought you to Capture Integration.

After working at various professional camera stores, I became an independent rep selling Norman studio strobes, Omega Arkay darkroom equipment and various other lines.  After 10 years I went to work for Sinar Bron Imaging in 1995.  That is where I first worked with Dave Gallagher.  Steve Hendrix also worked there for a time.  After Dave opened CI, I sold him various brands through the years including Sinar, Broncolor, Foba, Hasselblad and Phase One medium format and aerial cameras.  I then became a drone pilot and sold DJI drones to public safety agencies and photographers.  After that, I decided that I would like to go back and using all my past experiences, sell once again, all the brands that I had sold throughout my career including DJI drones.  There was only one distributor that had the capability to provide those brands, but also someone I had worked with and trusted. I gave Dave a call.  Dave said he did not even have to think about it.  The rest is history!

What is your favorite phrase of idiom that you use daily?

“If you’re going to be a bear, be a Grizzly.”

If photography was a person, how would you describe your relationship with them?

I would want to learn all about them.  All the ins and outs of what makes them tick.  I would cherish all that knowledge and share it with as many people as I could.

If you were behind your camera and could choose anything you wanted to be in your viewfinder, where would you be and what would you be looking at?

Camping and fishing at any lake, looking at the family.  However, now a days, I would not be looking through the viewfinder, but instead, I would be looking at the controller of a drone. 😉

What is something that makes your skin crawl?

Mean people and heights, except for skydiving with my grandson.

What are your favorite hobbies?

Golfing, camping, fishing, riding ATVs, cooking & flying drones.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career?

There has been a lot.  My father got me into photography at an early age.  As a starving photographer with two small kids, my wife kept supporting me as she does to this day.  I had a lot of good bosses which always gave me a lot of latitude to do my job and be successful.  Two of them really stand out.  Michael Hejtmanek when he was the president of Sinar Bron Imaging and Steve Cooper when he ran Phase One Americas.