It started with a vanilla latte.
At Penn State, there was a barista at Starbucks who noticed I ordered the same thing every day. She asked about the Arabic and Hebrew books I was carrying. That's how I met Merika. Days after we graduated, we packed up and moved to the Rio Grande Valley to become teachers — because apparently we like a challenge. From there: high school in Texas, middle school in the Bronx, a Master's in Education from CUNY along the way.
New York is where the camera found me.
My favorite subject was the Yankees. Not the home runs — the routine double play. Freeze that half-second and the brilliance shows up: two athletes, perfect timing, a play most people watch without ever really seeing. That's when it clicked for me. Ordinary moments have something inside them that only reveals itself when you stop time. A wedding is a whole day of those moments. The look your dad gives you before the doors open. Your partner's face during the vows. Nobody performs those — you just have to be there, ready.
So I taught myself to be ready.
I was the kid programming and editing in Photoshop before I was a teenager, so the technical side came fast. The rest I learned the hard way: I'd filmed over 100 weddings entirely on my own before I ever second-shot for anyone. Since 2019, weddings have been the work — more than 40 of them in a single year, 150+ celebrations captured by Wildwood across Oregon, Washington, and California. Couples tell me the same two things afterward: he made everyone feel comfortable, and he won't miss a thing. A teacher reads a room of thirty teenagers and knows who's about to melt down before they do. Your wedding has a hundred guests and one timeline. Same skill.
The honest part.
I still work in schools during the winter months. Wedding-season me is all yours. I'd rather tell you that plainly than have you wonder — teaching isn't a footnote in this story. It's the reason I'm calm when your timeline slips, patient with your flower girl, and completely unbothered when it rains.
When I'm not at your wedding:
I'm in Beaverton with Merika — now a nurse practitioner and still the calm one — and our three kids. Cava and Zatinya are twins, born in New York City, and competitive rock climbers, which means our family vacations look different than most. (Jaleo, the youngest, is coming for their titles.) I played NCAA tennis once upon a time and taught it too.
If you're still reading, we should talk.
You don't choose a photographer from an About page — you choose one by seeing how it feels to have them around. So come shoot with me first, at no cost. If you don't love your engagement photos, don't hire me for the wedding. No invoice, no hard feelings.