Dave’s family was living on an army base in Heidelberg, Germany. It was there, when he turned 15, that his father gave him his first camera, a 35mm Pentax Spotmatic. Once he developed his first roll of film, he was hooked. From there, he began shooting anything and everything.
He then discovered a second love: music. So for the next 30 years, his life was a dance between the creative worlds of photography and music. Those two worlds became his breath: as a successful singer & songwriter, he breathed out, and as a photographer, he breathed in. Although Dave concentrated on music for most of that time, he always kept his hands on the camera, tethered to the love of the snap, click and whir of the photographic world. After a long stint in music, he found himself in the design world, working in advertising as an art director and designer.
It was while on a trip to Sedona, Arizona in 2012 that, while hiking, he came upon a trail up a side canyon, and just happened to have his camera with him. As he began to shoot, something within him awakened; it was like finding a secret treasure, buried and forgotten for many years. When he returned home and uploaded the photos, his wife — an artist and photographer — said, “Dave, these are really good.” He trusted her objective point of view. Since then, his portfolio has grown immensely, he’s been in 3 photography shows, and teaches workshops on understanding light and the camera.
When he takes a photograph, he tends to think of each image as a single line of poetry — that’s definitely the songwriter in him. It helps him connect each photograph with something that moves him. And because he tends to visualize the final result when he shoots, he’s always also aware of the balance, the lines, colors, light and dark and the way each photo is framed — that’s definitely the designer in him. As the artist, though, he continues to look for new subjects and new surprises to photograph, no matter who, where or what they might be. It’s why he believes that the most exciting scene is just around the next corner.
Clients often ask him for photographs they can use in the materials he’s designing for them, or the website he’s building for them. By using him as their photographer they don’t have to explain the project to someone else…they’re already on the same page.
Dave approaches photography from a design standpoint. Just like all great design, each element has to capture the image and character of your business. You want people to see who you are…to feel they know you before they actually meet you.
Keep all your elements in-house by using Dave as your photographer.
