About ME

I’ve had a love of photography ever since I got my first Kodak Instamatic as a young boy. That interest was sharpened when I took Photography classes in high school, learning the fundamentals of not only light and composition, but developing and printing as well. I think my father saw that finally there was a subject I was interested in and was getting decent grades at. So, to keep me on that path he bought me a Canon AE-1. My first real camera. I couldn’t begin to count the number of rolls of 35mm film I ran through it.

However, you might find it interesting to know that before I got my 1st real camera, I had a motorcycle. Throughout my life I’ve also been drawn to mechanical things. I suppose finding my way to motorcycles was also my father’s doing. One of my earliest memories is my dad riding me around on the back of a family friends Harley Davidson Duo Glide. Also, growing up in the late 70’s in Alaska, all my friends had motorcycles, so of course I had to have one as well.

When I enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard in 1982, I had to sell the motorcycle but I kept the camera. Over the following years, I would occasionally found myself on a bike just long enough to remember what it was like and why I enjoyed it so much. Even back then I knew someday I’d get another one and would be back on the road, and after I retired from the Coast Guard in 2010, I did exactly that. But, by this time I hadn’t been active in photography for a number of years and was a bit behind the curve as it was. That changed in 2016 when I went to work at a motorcycle dealership in Dulles, VA as the Social Media/Web/Advertising person.

As it would turn out, my job at the dealership would be the catalyst to combine my interests in photography and motorcycles. Having long since sold my beloved Canon, I decided to join the digital age and got my hands on a used Nikon DSLR. I took a number of trips with my Nikon and slowly began to rediscover photography again. After one of my co-workers pointed out a local camera shop to me, I traded in the Nikon DSLR in on a Nikon Z-Fc mirrorless. Quite a learning curve to get the hang of it, but a huge upgrade. Many of the photos on this website were taken with that camera.

In 2023 I realized I still had enough GI Bill left for another degree, so I decided to return to the world of academia and attended Northern Virginia Community College where I earned an A.A.S. degree in Photography + Media in December 2025.

So, what’s next? Well, I intend to do as much traveling and photography as possible. For now, all I can say is,

Stay tuned….

Matt