The Birth of a Toronto Portrait Photographer

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a sharp crack to the head…

A little over three years ago, that’s exactly what happened, on a day that was to change the course of my future.

You see, I’ve been a creator all my life, writing since I was a child, chasing stories with every keystroke, living a thousand lives in the dark recesses of my imagination. And to be an effective storyteller, you’ve got to be a keen observer of humankind, a student of psychology, with a black belt in common sense. You’ve got to be able to empathize with your characters, embody them, relate to them. Little did I realize how well all these qualities would serve me on the journey to come.

Portrait of a Madman

Several years ago, a chance slip-and-fall accident at my rather mundane job of medical courier, resulted in the aforementioned sharp crack to the head, and a mild but temporarily debilitating concussion.

It was during my convalescence that I was afforded the time and freedom to teach myself something new. With my background in storytelling, it wasn’t much of a stretch to turn my curiosity and imagination to the world of photography, writing with light instead of words.

The internet was my university, YouTube in particular. With a multitude of virtual mentors at my fingertips, there was no subject that was out of reach. What began as a casual search for a basic understanding of the fundamentals of photography, turned into a full throttle quest to absorb anything I could on the subject.

The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. Camera fundamentals, lenses and lighting, editing, composition - I drank it all in as fast as it would flow. I dabbled in product photography and honed my technical skills in real estate photography, perfecting my composition and editing techniques along the way. But, it just wasn’t enough.

I yearned to flex my creativity.

The Creator Within

Slowly, almost reluctantly, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to learn everything I could about Portrait Photography, a field which had previously intimidated me. With each building block I laid down, the more solid my foundation became, boosting my self-confidence and fortifying my resolve.

And then a magical thing happened: the more I learned about how light can shape a subject, create a mood, and tell the story of a living soul, the more enraptured with the art I became. It was as if all my life experiences had culminated in this one genre: my passion for constructing strange worlds from my imagination; to write credible, believable characters and dialogue; my lifetime of observing the human condition in an attempt to fathom why we do the myriad things we do; my obsession with movies, television, and acting, distilling them down to their core elements; my years of providing excellent client satisfaction on numerous levels — they had all brought me to this one point in my life where I could now artfully capture the essence of a person through my lens, to tell their story, explore their truth, all within a single frame.

It’s an exhilarating feeling.

The world I now inhabit is a thrilling sandbox to play in, and I am driven by an almost unquenchable thirst for expression, and limited only by my creativity. It’s ever-changing, offering new possibilities and challenges at every turn. I continue to learn every day, to sharpen my skills and perfect my craft, to broaden my understanding of my new expanded universe, all in an effort to explore it to its boundless frontier.

What a journey it’s been. And the best part - it’s only the beginning!