Do you plan to go to school to study photography? At the moment I’m working towards going to the Puget Sound Naval shipyard apprenticeship program, maybe after I graduate from there I’ll look into photography school.

What kinds of photography are you interested in? I find all fields of photography very interesting, but I really enjoy spontaneous photography as well as street photography.

How would you describe your style as a photographer? I wouldn’t. I don’t really apply myself to any themes or construct a shot to have a specific message. I just photograph things I find interesting or appealing. Sometimes I find a method or a technique that I’ll try out, but I just incorporate it into my skill-set rather than forming all of my images around that one idea.

If you had to choose one lens which would it be, and why? It definitely is a close contest between my 55mm prime lens and my 35-135mm zoom. I think I would choose the 35-135mm because it’s super versatile and really sharp.

What lighting equipment do you take on shoots? I generally only bring a Nikon SB-24 Speed light, but I rarely use it. I tend towards using natural light as much as possible, just because it takes so long to get lighting right. I can take a picture of the same quality without artificial light; it’ll just be a different picture.

What is your favorite photo-editing accessory? I have a few different versions of Photoshop as well as Picasa and an HDR processing program called Photomatix. With the exception of HDR photography, I don’t edit my photos very heavily. When I process a photo I’ll usually de-noise, sharpen, and adjust levels/exposure values. Sometimes I’ll bump up or decrease saturation and tone depending on what I feel the image needs.

What is your most used Photoshop tool, plug-in, etc.? I have a few different Nik software plug-ins; my favorite being Color-efex Pro because it gives me local control over my editing. I can drop a point, and then can control anything within that circle. 

How important is Photoshop in your final image? It depends on what kind of picture I want to take. A lot of people think that Photoshop is cheating, and to be honest, it kind of is. The truth, however, is that the majority of photographs online today have been edited in Photoshop to some extent. Without Photoshop most of my pictures would have a good amount of grain and they wouldn’t be super sharp. Without Photoshop, some of my photos would be impossible. I use a technique called High Dynamic Range, which basically means I bracket my photos (change exposure settings to get a range of frames from underexposed to overexposed), and then I put them together in Photomatix. This helps because then every element in the photo is properly exposed, and it looks more like the scene you saw than a regular photo (which averages all of the light and then exposes for the median).

Are you a Mac or a PC lover? I’m a Mac lover, but a PC user. I had an iBook G4 for the longest time, but over eighth-grade summer it broke. I needed a computer so I bought a Compaq, but I can’t wait until it breaks so I can get a new Macbook.

How do you feel about cropping an image? I feel fine about cropping. Ideally the image would be framed right in the first place, but cropping is a handy alternative. The problem with cropping is that it’s basically digitally zooming in, and when you blow up an image it loses some quality. As long as it’s not a huge crop, cropping is fine.

What gets your creative juices flowing? I spend a good amount of time looking through photos on Flickr, and I pick through certain elements and try to incorporate them into photos later. When I go to set up a shot, I explore different angles as well as techniques I know to figure out what I want to do. 

What has been your most memorable picture and why? Well there are two things that make an image memorable. The shot could be exactly what you envisioned, everything could have gone perfectly and produced something truly beautiful, or it could be memorable because of the experiences associated with it. I really like a shot I took of an oil tanker with the full moon just off the bow. It was cold though and taking the picture wasn’t pleasant. My favorite experience while taking a photo was when I was walking through town with my sisters and friends just before Christmas, and I took a shot of the town Christmas tree as we walked by. The shot was good, but the experience was more fun.

Is there any photographer out there that you would be stoked to say, “He took my portrait”?  Steve McCurry definitely. I really like his photography, and I think it’d be cool to get a portrait done by him.

What is a website and/or blog that you visit often? I’m on Facebook, Gmail and Flickr daily, and I visit my dad’s blog whenever I remember it. When I find a photographer whose work I like, I’ll search their website and visit it every so often.

Where can people find your work or contact you? I have all of my work on Flickr, and you can contact me through Facebook. 

Do you have any advice for someone interested in becoming a photographer? Take a lot of photos, but don’t take a million and then hope one turns out well. Think about your photos before you take them. You can also find a huge amount of information on the Internet. 

Have you ever had anything go wrong during a shoot? I’ve had lots of things go wrong on a shoot. Usually they can be fixed, but it’s not fun if you find out later that you shot an entire roll of ISO400 film at ISO1600.

The first photographer that comes to your mind and why?  Sally Mann because her work is really interesting and controversial. Photos that conform completely to society’s ‘rules’ are boring. I like her because she pushes the envelope a little bit.

A photographer besides Ernst that inspires you? My dad, and Sally Mann.

How do you market your photos? I don’t. Right now I just take pictures because I find photography enjoyable.

Is there anybody or anything you would like to photograph? I’ll photograph pretty much anything that comes my way, I don’t have anything or anyone specific that I’d like to photograph. Sometimes when I think about a photo I’ll think, “Oh, such and such would be a perfect model for this.”

Can you describe when you use a flash, video light, reflectors, and natural light when taking certain types of pictures? The only time I ever use reflectors and lights is when I’m working with Ernst at his studio. As I mentioned before, I don’t use a flash very often unless it’s actually necessary; like when I’m in a completely dark room and I need to light a subject, or when I need fill flash outdoors. I almost always use natural light in my photography, because it’s just that, natural.

What is your favorite photography accessory other than your camera? I don’t use very many accessories unless you count my multiple lenses. I guess it would be my macro extension tube that lets me focus down to a very short distance (1/2-9 inches).