My career really took off – no pun intended – when I decided
to do a bit of travelling on courier flights.
Basically, you give up your baggage space so courier companies can use
it for urgent packages. You would get
reduced rate flights, sometimes even free, in exchange. One day I called up to see if they had any
flights within the next couple weeks. They
told me if I could get to the airport in 4 hours I could get a free flight to
Manila since the other courier couldn’t make it. So four hours later I was on a flight to the Philippines,
a place I knew absolutely nothing about.
But I brought my little portfolio, and when I landed in
Manila I went around to show it to the local magazines who all said they would
be happy to work with me if I was around. I figured it would be an adventure and also a
great way to build my portfolio, so I stayed.
I ended up living in Manila for the next year working for all sorts of
clients, including advertising agencies.
This is something I never would have been able to do as a brand new
photographer in the USA.
Once I came back to the USA, I figured it was time to get
really serious about being a photographer and moved to New York City. It was hard at first, since I really was still
quite new to photography. But I slowly
started building a client base and a good reputation, and after a few years I
could really consider myself a working photographer. My first real job was an ad campaign for
Banana Republic. I was still SO new, a
job like that was really out of my league and I was quite nervous going into
it. And this is back when everything was
shot on slide film, a really difficult and unforgiving type of film to use.
But I got through it and the client was happy, so I knew I
could actually make a living at this.
After about 5 years or so living in NYC, I was shooting in Los Angeles
so often for BCBG and other clients, I decided to just move to California and
travel back to NYC for work instead of the other way around. California was my home after all, and I
missed the more relaxed lifestyle and the nice weather! My career really took off when I got out here.
I was shooting
quite often and even was put on contract for brands like Forever 21 and
bebe.
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