I’m from Waimānalo, Hawaiʻi—a beautiful country town on the Windward side of Oʻahu, tucked between the majestic Koʻolau Mountains and the white sands of Waimānalo Beach. From Bellows Airfield to Makapuʻu Point Lighthouse, that stretch of land was my first classroom and playground. My childhood began outdoors playing in the streets, exploring trails at the base of the Koʻolau with friends, picking mangos, guavas, and mountain apples to share with family and neighbors. Surfing, hiking, and biking after school became my odyssey.

In high school, photography entered my life and never really left. That was when I decided I wanted to be a photographer—more specifically, a combat photographer. Not for lofty, poetic reasons (those came later), but because I wanted adventure, adrenaline, and the challenge of capturing something real in chaos. I liked the idea of “shooting” people without killing them. I wanted to tell stories in places where no one else wanted to look. Contrary to Sun Tzu, I wanted to make art where there was no art.

Looking back, that was teenage bravado talking. There was no war in my world then—so I explored my school instead, photographing people, places, and ordinary moments, always searching for stories and smiling behind the camera. If there had been a war, the teenager in me would’ve probably said, “Where’s the fun in that, if it ends too fast?”

In college, my interests expanded. I studied art, design, and photography, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture. I fell in love with buildings, structure, and intentional design. I traveled with friends and family, married a beautiful Brazilian woman I met in Los Angeles, had a daughter, and later moved to Maryland to build an architecture business in Washington, D.C. Through it all, photography remained a constant—never a job, always a companion. I was capturing moments for myself, preserving memories that moved me.

Four decades later, photography has become my profession and another chapter of my life. I never moved with a grand plan or singular dream; I took life one day at a time, savoring the moments as they came. And it turns out those moments matter.

I still think about that early desire to be a combat photographer—to create images that could move people, challenge them, and inspire change. Today, that impulse lives on through conservation photography. I want to tell stories about the environment, wildlife, and the people working to protect them, and to support environmental and cultural conservation through ethical, honest imagery.

I’m drawn to exploration and observation—to the details in both man-made creations and the natural world. I’m fascinated by beauty and ugliness alike, in people, wildlife, nature, and the artificial. Through photography, I aim to capture the essence of a moment that reveals a story—allowing people, places, and things to be seen on their own terms.

Whether it’s elevating a brand or feeding the soul, my purpose is to create engaging, timeless images that carry emotion and meaning—and that, in some small way, can affect a life.