My journey into photography is not typical by any means. Way back in 2010 in Lubbock, TX, my wife was gifted a small DSLR camera with a couple of lenses. I knew nothing about photography, but for some reason I was drawn to this camera. I couldn’t put it down. I love figuring things out and I love a good challenge and photography seemed to scratch the itch for both of those things. I bought books, watched videos, and took thousands of pictures. I challenged myself to not allow the camera to make any decisions for me.

Once I started to get it, things ramped up very quickly for me. That cheap little camera with the two kit lenses was a distant memory. I became a certified professional photographer from the Professional Photographers Association. I was shooting D1 college football games from the sidelines. I was traveling across the country shooting professional dirt bike races and getting pictures in national magazines. I was photographing high school seniors, weddings, families, etc. It was insane how quickly I found my footing in the photography world and then everything came to a screeching halt.

My wife was diagnosed with cancer, and it wasn’t looking good. She had to quit working because her health declined, and we had to make a change, or she was going to die, and I was going to be a bankrupt widower with 3 children. I took a new job in IT in Dallas Texas that paid well enough that we could survive but we had to get there and had no means to do it. I made the tough decision to sell every bit of my photography gear to fund that move and get us setup until I got my first paycheck.

In Dallas, I dearly missed photography and I needed to find an outlet for my creativity. I turned to food and started all over, teaching myself something else. I found a new passion and that was cooking. I dove in the same as I did with photography. Oh, I forgot to mention, my wife found a hotshot young oncologist and withing a year, she was cancer free! Fast forward eight or so years and we moved to Colorado Springs, CO after dropping our daughter off at College at CSU. We fell in love with the beauty of Colorado as well as the mild climate compared to Dallas, TX.

Soon after moving here, I started teaching cooking classes as well as catering and doing private chef events. I still missed photography and then we made the decision, I needed to get back into photography and I could then combine my two passions of food and photography which brings me to the here and now and why I am now a professional food photographer! 

How about that journey huh! Thanks for sticking with it and reading the Cliff Notes version of my photography life. Now that you know more about me, let me get to know you. Shoot me an email, a call or a text and let’s begin a journey together.

Russ