Growing up, stories of El Paso were often the topics of road trips as my father drove us from Georgia to Texas to visit my family in Dallas/Forth Worth. My father attended the University of Texas, El Paso for a time, so stories of Juarez, the desert, and the big skies of west Texas were spoken fondly of as I sat and listened in childlike awe of a place I had never seen until much later on in life. Perhaps some of the details of life in a border town during the 70’s were omitted, but I can just imagine the shenanigans he got into. I wish I could go back and speak to him as an adult (RIP Pops) and hear the more mature versions of these stories. Hell, maybe they’d be the same stories and I’ve had this idea of what it could have been like in my head and it’s nothing more than that. Maybe it was far wilder than I imagine it was. Either way, the lure of El Paso has been in my head from a very young age despite not ever really spending much time there.
Read MoreTravel Diary: America Part 1 - Georgia
Scheduled to head back home in March 2020, for obvious reasons I didn’t get to take that trip. After 6 years, I made the trip back to the States to visit friends and family. That feeling of a mixture of familiarity and, contrastingly, feeling like an outsider at the same time is a strange dichotomy I forgot about and was instantly greeted as the wheels hit the runway. Living overseas obviously changes you, but in ways that I’m not sure I ever anticipated. It’s like watching a movie you’ve seen before. You’re not a part of it, but it’s all so familiar…. Until those things pop up that you’ve not experienced since you left. The sudden overwhelming sense of comprehension of everyone’s small talk, social cues, and nuance…. It’s a lot. But on the other side of that coin, not knowing how to carry yourself because of the sensory overload. Shifts in social interactions, world views, etc…It’s a mental obstacle course.
Read MoreTravel Diary : Indonesia
One of my favorite places on earth, Indonesia lures me back constantly with its beaches, rugged landscapes, underwater wonderlands, and general laid back lifestyle. This trip took me to Nusa Penida and Amed in Bali and the Derawan Islands in Indonesian Borneo.
Read MoreTravel Diary: Sydney
After two long years of not being able to travel internationally, we finally got a chance to hop on a plane, use the passport and revisit our home from before Saigon. Sydney holds so many memories, friends and, as we found out on this trip, new corners and neighbourhoods to explore.
Read MoreFamily Sessions : Street Style
I recently took on a family session and as most of you know this is far outside of what I shoot on a day in day out basis. It’s not my wheelhouse to say the least. That said, when a client sends an amazing brief (hint hint, always send creative references and briefs to make your creatives happy. You’ll get the best results) and wanted me to shoot street style to document. their last days in Saigon, I jumped at the opportunity.
Read MoreRecent Work: Madame Roselle Vietnamese Aperitif
In my former life I worked behind bars, in cellars and in kitchens so it’s no surprise I love shooting food and beverage images. Also, with that time in the F&B industry I got to eat and drink some of the best in the world. This exploration carried on in F&B photography, but runs the gamut from the phenomenal to the maybe not so much. This one is absolutely delicious.
Read MoreTravel Diary : Hoi An, Vietnam
As most of you know, I help run tours in Central Vietnam with Pics of Asia with one of my good friends, Etienne Bossot. Also, unless you’ve been living under a rock under another rock buried next to Jimmy Hoffa, you’d also know travel has been sketchy and inaccessible in Vietnam the past year or so. So, when I got a chance to finally get back to Hoi An, I told Etienne we had to go shoot one morning
Read MoreTravel Diary : Phong Nha Ke Bang
Over the Tet Holiday this year, I got the opportunity to finally get up to Phong Nha. How it’s taken me this long to explore this part of Vietnam is mind boggling and I’ve kicked myself a few times for not getting up there sooner. It’s definitely wayyyy up there with my favorite places in Vietnam. Caves, rivers, limestone karsts, rice paddies…
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