Accidental Discovery.

How I got started with photography by complete accident. In high school, I got offered a job to be a graphic designer focusing on advertisements for my hometown. (How I got that job will be a story for a different day) As I grew more advanced in my role as a designer, I would get discouraged when my clients would bring me low-resolution and boring images. So, I went and bought myself a camera and started going out to take the images I wanted for that ad to make it tie into the vision I had in mind with the design and proper messaging.

My clients at the time were so wowed over and over again by the difference proper imagery would make to their campaigns they started offering to pay me for that in addition to my designs. And so, my journey as a photographer began.

By nature, I was shy. It was easy for me to go and do landscape photography or real estate because I didn’t have to talk to anyone. Plus, being so new to the overwhelming technology, I was learning with every shoot I did. As I grew more comfortable, I got used to saying yes to the things I had to talk myself into out of sheer fear of failure mentally… I grew to love the challenge of creating the emotion I was feeling. I thrive on fear at the moment. As a former performer, the best I could portray my mental state walking into every shoot was “fake til you make it; this is just stage fright.”

Eventually, I overcame the technicalities of photography and developed strategies to help connect myself to the subject. That practice evolved into a name stake that carried me over a decade…. to where my business was known as “Matchless Exposure.”

The business name fit my clientele then, filled with motorcycles, music amps, timely and timeless advertisements, weddings, etc. My young and enthusiastic mind could only reason that the word “Matchless” reflected on my favorite motorcycle, a guitar amplifier while having a pyro-loving habit of striking a match and staring at the flame when I felt creatively stomped.

Then came the addition of Photography vs. Exposure. At the time, I was shooting all-natural light and loved the challenge of being able to shoot nearly impossible low-light settings filled with action and being able to expose the images in the pose properly. So I decided to let my recognizable style portray my name stake.

Of course, after so much time and feedback in my career, common notes playing on the words came along, and I just felt so destined to be identified as “ Matchless Exposure,” Exposing life’s unmatchable moments. Cute, eh?

Well, after so much time under that labeled name. And humbly experiencing career highlights, including multiple Rolling Stone Country Magazine image publishings, published once in Billboard, twice by Paste, and once by People Babies. Executing creative direction, photography, and graphic design have been featured in the album packaging for Grammy-nominated bands. Realizing my creative services had successfully branded businesses to grow to corporate levels excessing up to 20% increase in audience attraction in 6 months. Resulting in up to an 11 % increase in revenue within a 10 - month tenure facilitated by influential marketing utilizing in-house sales data, relatable graphics, and demographically specific advertisements.

It’s time to settle back down to what I fell in love with. While the journey of exploring the other skillsets I had to offer coupled with my photography was exhilarating - It’s time to let that chapter offer as a guide to others aspiring to see where their creativity can better enhance the moment, to reflect on feeling the same emotion you had at that moment.