_{I was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Rafael. I received my first camera when I was eight. I took a Polaroid Land camera on a field trip to Point Reyes and fell in love with both nature and photography on that trip. When I arrived at high school I learned how to use the darkroom and decided I wanted to pursue photography as a career.  I worked in as many different areas as I could to learn as much as I could (from a camera store to a photo lab to assisting), before I went back to school and earned my degree at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997. There I studied with Jack Fulton, Linda Connor, Reagan Louie, Pirkle Jones and Hank Wessel.}