A little story about me....
Hawk Mountain, PA. Ed, along with some fellow FM friends, John Simoes and John Gonzalez made the 1 mile hike to the top, with 500mm lenses in tow, only to find that the hawks took a day off.
I remember the first time I picked up a camera as if it were yesterday. It was partly my mother's doing, as she won a Kodak 110 camera on a local radio station contest. When it arrived, she gave it to me to play with, and I'd snap pictures all day, whether there was film in the camera or not. At that age I was more intrigued with how it worked as opposed to what it did. But I enjoyed snapping pictures of nothing and pictures of everything.
Through the years, I used various cameras but never took much more of an interest beyond some basic black and white work while using my mother's prized AE-1 in a high school photography class. I eventually got a refurbished Rebel Xs through someone I knew who worked for Canon and loved that new camera feel.
My interest peaked a little bit more as I had some work published in the automotive niche publication, Mustang Monthly. It was pure coincidence as I was working as their Production Manager, completing an internship for my undergraduate work. While there, I assisted Art Director, Tom Rounds, and other staff photographers on some shoots, and even made it on the cover of an issue installing a grille into a fellow co-workers 1966 hardtop.
After my brief tenure there, I eventually found my way working in the graphic design field in New York. In 1998, the world wide web exploded and I found myself creating web sites part time, while still working in the design field. After several months of freelance, I was offered a position as Webmaster for a conference marketing firm in Manhattan. This new medium and delivery method allowed me to combine so much of my interests and talents, while exploring this new technology. However, my free time suffered and I put down the camera in favor of a computer keyboard and mouse.
Now, almost ten years later, I have come full circle and photography is now an integral part of my life and livlihood. Much of this can be attributed to my former boss and friend, Tom Dowling. Tom is the type of individual who not only makes you better as a person, but has you working as hard as he does achieving results and getting things done. In all of my life, I've never worked for or with someone that has expectations as high as myself.
However, even with all that said, the most thanks go to my incredibly supportive and loving wife, Kristin.
See you in the field.
-Ed