ABOUT ME

My Story

I have been interested in photography and cinema since I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Boston.  I pretended I was Indiana Jones swashbuckling through jungles and played Masters of the Universe in neighborhood basements.  I watched Star Wars and any musical on endless repeat.  I was hooked on images, both still and moving.  They were so powerful, and I longed to be a part of the world that created them.  I don't remember my first camera model, only that it was the shape of an ice cream sandwich and produced very grainy images.  I didn't care.  I felt the endless possibilities of that camera in my hand.  I could take pictures of whatever I wanted and reveled in that freedom.  In high school, my photography skills got better and I found my favorite subject - kids.  There was an abundance of children in my neighborhood and I babysat for many of them, so I was fortunate to have many subjects!  Kids generally don't get self conscious in front of a camera and show their personalities, which I found a joy to capture.  In college, my focus turned to my major, which was cinema.  I went to the University of Southern California film school and I felt like I had a lot to learn, but still wanted to continue learning about photography.  The film school offered a color photography class which worked with slide film, two things that were completely new to me and where I discovered I really enjoyed taking photographs of flowers and other things in nature.   Once I graduated in 2002, I started working in the film industry as a production assistant on films like War of the Worlds, Syriana, The Departed, Gone Baby Gone and 27 Dresses.  In 2008, I joined the Director's Guild of America as an assistant director and continued to work in film and television on projects like Showtime's Nurse Jackie, HBO's Olive Kitteridge, and films like Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2 and Ted.

I continued to photograph as a hobby in between film jobs and when I had spare time.  After losing my mother to cancer in 2014, I turned to photography as a creative outlet and a way to handle my grief.  I started to get more serious about my craft and honed my skills, going back to shooting nature, mostly landscapes and flower macro.  I found bird photography through a good friend who is also a birder, when I accompanied him on a couple of trips to wildlife refuges not far from where I live.  After getting a pretty decent shot of a snowy owl in flight, I was hooked!  Wildlife photography has grown to become a real passion, as have environmental causes.  It is a challenging photography genre, but I am at my happiest when I am out in the field shooting subjects who allow me to be in their presence and share a special moment with them.  I love sharing my work with others, so they too may be inspired by the beauty in nature that is around us all the time.

My passion for wildlife photography took a funny turn in 2018, with the purchase of my RV van, who I named Hedwig after the snowy owl in the Harry Potter franchise. I was inspired to purchase a small RV because there were so many places I wanted to visit to photograph, and it seemed like the best solution. Certainly better than having to worry about air fare, rental cars and hotel stays! Having an RV, where I have the flexibility to move around to wherever the wildlife is has proven to be a real advantage. I also was inspired to integrate Hedwig into my brand, and thus, EMac and Hedwig was born.

I was still trying to figure out how to make money with my nature photography, and I soon realized that one way to do that was to start a YouTube channel. After years of being behind the camera, I never thought I would be in front of it! It has been a process getting comfortable talking in front of a camera, but it is getting easier. I look forward to continuing on my journey as a photographer and YouTube creator, and I am excited to see where it takes me!