Growing up, I was given the freedom to explore almost everything. I painted, drew, sang in choir, danced, played nearly every sport and spent hours in libraries immersed in older books and creative worlds. I loved old films, records, science fiction and stories with something deeper beneath the surface. That curiosity was always there, long before I knew it would become part of my work.

The camera became another way to explore. By middle school, I was the friend carrying little cameras and disposables everywhere, documenting our friendships and the ordinary days we shared. I loved gathering pieces of our lives into something we could keep. Years later, those photographs still fill my friends’ scrapbooks and remain part of how we remember growing up.

My father used to tell me I would end up in photojournalism. I did not listen. At least, not then. I studied biology and began working in medicine, where my job eventually took me to different states. I formed friendships along the way and was later invited to photograph their weddings. Those relationships quietly became the beginning of my life as a destination wedding photographer.

Medicine still shapes the way I work. Years in fast paced clinical settings taught me to remain steady while everything around me is moving. Watching compassionate doctors care for patients shaped my own bedside manner and showed me how trust is built through patience, attentiveness and a calm presence.

Nearly a decade and hundreds of weddings later, the cameras have changed, but the instinct has not. I am still watching closely, collecting the story and preserving something meaningful for people to return to, in all corners of the world.