Hey, there! Welcome to my website! My name is Austin, I am a professional photographer and own two photography studios! At a superficial level, I am just a guy who loves alternative music and has this website to be a virtual conduit as a photographer. Of course, there is always more to know about me, and if you want to, then read on below. 

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  My journey in photography has been a winding and wayward experience that has led me to so many new horizons, places, and spaces than I could've never imagined alternatively. Likewise, I never foresaw any of the success I've had in my career come about as it has come about over the years.  My genesis in photography began casually taking pictures of the world around me as my interest in various genres and approaches accrued over time. Several years ago, I finally branched out on my own and started my own photography studio, Studio 42 Photography. Most recently, I opened my second photography studio, focused squarely on fine art photography- The Beautiful Pursuit. I'm also proud to say I have traveled all of the Continental United States for my work and to some prominent parts of Canada, as well. At this point in my career, I am as much as a traveler as I am a photographer, and I probably spend around half of the year on the road, if not more, doing work for all sorts of clients, big and small, longterm and short-term. 

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    You may also be wondering what is the ethos of my photography, what is the inspiration and motivation that guides and shapes my perspective as a photographer? And, that is a very good question to ask! You see, I discovered photography in a very difficult and fractured point in my life. Life inherently is a very ambiguous and harrowing experience, and I was lacking direction and purpose in my life during this period. Through photography, starting with an $80 Canon Rebel, with time and dedication, I found the answers to these challenges I had and so much more. Over the years, I’ve seen so much of life and living through my work and passion. This range includes meeting exemplary people from all walks of life, being apart of so many magnanimous events, and seeing so much of the natural and cultural beauty all over the United States and Canada. Moreover, being exposed countlessly to so many different situations, settings, places, spaces, people, and cultures through so many different seasons and situations has shown me the broad array of beauty that exists in the world, no matter what calamity or challenge may exist otherwise.

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    That is why my ethos in photography is to capture and find all the beauty that exists within life and living within the perspective of the images I capture. Using the raw elements of light and time, photography is a remarkable means of an art for its ability to instantly capture and give permanence to the finite moments of life as they come and go in their temperance. As the photographer Aaron Siskin once said, "Photography is a way of touching, of feeling, of loving. What has been captured in film has been captured forever. It remembers all the little things long after you have forgotten everything." There is beauty all around us in this great big world of ours! As I like to joke about, I will more than likely die with a camera in my hand trying to aspiring to capture all the beauty I see around myself in the circumference of my life.

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    Outside of photography, I posses an MBA and an MA in Data Analytics earned from Western Governor's University with a BA in English education from CSU, Chico. I also have two AS degrees from Yuba College, and was the valedictorian of my graduating high school class! Beyond my education and before becoming more centric on photography, I spent the majority my creative life in love with writing. Writing has always been my escape from reality, and I've taken advantage of that escape excessively, having penned somewhere over a million words in fiction to date- a goal I originally set for myself and reached by age eighteen. Two of my novels are currently in print. Somewhere with the Wind was my debut work, released in 2015, which took me on a three stop book tour thru Oregon. In 2016, my second novel, One Last Cast, came as my subsequent follow-up. To this day, even though the majority of my time is focused upon photography, I still find the time to write and have several works planned for release in the upcoming months.

   

   I am also proud to say that I am a mental health advocate and have projects with several nonprofits in the near and distant future in regard to such. Through my life, I have seen the effects of mental illness and the impact such can have in a broad number of ways. At the end of the day, we're all just all just of a bunch of finite, consciously ordered atoms with only so much time prescribed on this spinning rock. Aside from death, all we really have is each other. This is why I am immensely privileged to be able to use my photography to help advocate for mental health awareness and be of support and courage in treating and overcoming mental illness. At this point in my career, it's arguably where I draw the most enjoyment from my work!