When my family moved across the country in 1999 I received my first film camera- an inexpensive reusable Barbie camera. In 2005, I used my mother’s digital Kodak to capture our a road trip to Florida. Eventually I had a waterproof Sony video camera I used daily until I was able to get a DSLR in high school. Since I was young I had a desire to document everything I was afraid I would forget- everything from family road trips to the way reflections looked at a certain time of day to flowers on the ground. That desire grew into a passionate hobby about perspective. It’s become therapeutic to see the world through the lens of a camera on my trips or simple everyday adventures.

An old dream of mine was to become an Olympic event photographer. I once wanted to participate in the Olympics myself, and can’t imagine how inspiring it would be to capture the hard work and successes of Olympic athletes from all over the world.

However, I never took a photo class or developed the skills (and bought the equipment) required to make that happen (yet) but I really enjoy event photography for similar reasons. I’ve been the Historian and on the Media Team for Artup Student Entrepreneurship Club at VCU, on the photo team at TEDxVCU, and a photographer/videographer for The Horn RVA (a local music coverage organization part of VCU’s Student Media Center that covers local concerts and music videos). I was also an intern from Sept 2013-May 2014 for VMFA, documenting special events and exhibitions through the Audience Development Program.
Other events include RVA Hackathon 2015, Code Across America 2014, Dominion Riverrock 2014, local music videos, and CHHS 2015 Graduation.

In January 2017, my old roommate Katie Pelikan and I started an Instagram called terra.tactile where we have been documenting and sharing our plants with others. Read more about terra.tactile and my other social media experience here.