I’ve been a journalist for - let’s just call it decades. At the start of my career I lugged my Nikkormat (an indestructible cinder block of a camera) along with my notepad and sometimes did my own shots. My first press award was for photography.

 

When I graduated to national publications I was told to “pick a lane.” I chose words. I figured I might eventually prefer sitiing behind a desk with a mug of hot coffee to hauling 40 pounds of photo gear into a cold and rainy field at dawn.

 

I picked up the camera again to write about photography and shoot for publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Car and Driver, and a bunch I forget. There was the occasional wedding. I have shifted to branding for boutique businesses, entrepreneurs, influencers, and anyone who wants images that stand out from the stock house crapola most of their competitors use. I create a catalog of shots suitable for press kits, websites and social media.

 

My writing still plays a part in this — I spent almost a decade covering advertising and marketing, and in that time had unlimited access to hall-of-fame ad people to discuss the thinking behind groundbreaking campaigns. I’d like to think I absorbed quite a bit, which gives my clients an edge, They get images that aren’t merely pretty, but that are compelling, strategic, and tell their customers what they need to know.