Whenever I talk to people about my career as a photographer. It always turns to the best part of my job. Working with children. I started my career as a full-time photographer at 20 years old by shooting weddings and real estate. What a snoozer…. Not the weddings… The real estate… Weddings can sometimes be snoozers. Like when you get a really bad DJ. But, anyways lets get back on topic… About two years into my career as a photographer I started shooting children in my first studio and then gradually got into doing beach portraits. I actually hated having a real brick and mortar studio and I hated being inside. Studios… Well, they’re a lot like boats. You don’t want to own a boat. You want to have a really good friend that owns a boat. That way you get to have all the fun without the work and only chip in on gas from time to time. Or in the case of a studio, just rent it out for a day.
So eventually, I organically gravitated out of the studio and outside to my other big love in life besides photography, and that’s the beach. I started the biggest family portrait company on Clearwater Beach, it’s still around today as I sold the website But due to some life changes. I started to care less about money and wanted to change how I did things. So instead of tearing down the old website, I sold it to an interested party who wanted to grow it into something bigger, and started fresh. I like smaller and simpler. I guess I’m a simple guy. It’s always healthy to mix it up and start fresh so that’s what I did… and here I am!
I grew up playing on Clearwater Beach as a kid. Spent my summers there. My best childhood memories are there. I enjoy sharing that joy by creating awesome Clearwater Beach Photography. I love children and love working with all the kids. We adults tend to get old, too busy, too tired, and grumpy. Spending my life working with children has kept me young and happy. 🙂
From the moment I greet you and your family in person I am on sitting on the ground talking to the kids. Adults are kinda boring. Maybe it’s the fact that I am big kid at heart. But I just love talking with kids and making them laugh. As a Beach Photographer who spends the majority of his time working with families and children. I learned early on you have to engage the kids, get them to warm up and be comfortable with you quickly. You have to build trust with them from the start. We adults tend to forget grown ups are intimidating to young children. I always get on the ground and play a game instantly with them called. I’m gonna guess your age… I turn to the youngest one and say. “I’m gonna guess how old you are.” “You’re 22?” The kids instantly always laugh and say “Nooooooo.” and then make me keep guessing… I always work my way down from 22. Hahaha. Then I try to guess their names, along the way giving them nick names for the night like. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, or Sponge Bob. It takes what? Maybe 5 minutes of effort… But within that 5 minutes I have the kids in the palm of my hand and we’re off to the beach where I next teach them how to yell Shark very loudly and properly, so we scare all the Canadians visiting the beach… Mom and Dad, I apologize in advance if your kids pick up 1 or 2 bad habits while we make some awesome Clearwater Beach Photography. I told you I was a big kid! 🙂
I love working with children… It’s the best part of my job. Whether it’s hanging out with my own kids who are 5 and 8, and 15 or creating portraits for your family. Being around children keeps me young at heart. So not only are you getting an awesome Clearwater Beach Photographer, you’re getting a guy who keeps the session moving and fun, a photographer who has lots of corny jokes, and most importantly feels truly blessed to be able to create that extra special Clearwater Beach Photography for you.