If you're reading this you're wondering who I am, where I came from, and why I would choose a difficult career like freelance photography. The simple answer? It's definitely not the money. It's the stories.

Journalism allows a certain kind of access unavailable to most. But it's not a free for all voyeur-fest; there is a tacit agreement with the subject to share their story.

It first happened for me at the University of Washington Daily newspaper while working on a story about organ donation. I saw a mother cry for her daughter, dead after a roll-over accident on the highway. I heard a doctor sigh after an interview; his wife was leaving him. I watched a couple gaze at their baby who, because of transplanted corneas, could now see his parents. This was a turning point for me. Yes, I studied geology and editorial journalism, but the school paper was my education.

I had a confused mid-twenties experience working retail and being a climbing bum but in 1999, when Seattle streets filled with tear gas, I was introduced to the Liaison Agency.

I was one of the first IPN photographers, a contributor to the Workbookstock.com launch, I received an honorable mention from the World Press Photo competition, an "Accepted Work" with the SSF World Sports Photo Competition, a solo exhibition at the University of Washington for FEAR, and I am a Blue Earth sponsored photographer. I was also a recipient of the Open Society Institute Project Distribution Grant, funded by the Soros Foundation. There are other accolades to my CV, but I kind of forget.

I am founder and Creative Director of the 501(c)3 non profit FEAR Project, a documentary multimedia project. Through personal narratives we create dialog about the lasting effects of sexual violence on individuals and their communities.

I am co-founder of the Travel and Outdoor Photographer's Alliance, a trade organization educating photographers on business practices and facilitating client/photographer communication.

I contribute or have contributed to: Liaison, Getty Images Assignments, Zuma Press, World Picture News, Workbookstock (now Jupiter), Alamy Images, and even, at one troubled point, the Associated Press and Getty Images News. Unfortunately both have work-for-hire (or similar) contracts I now avoid.

I am entirely self taught and have a preferance for stories on alternative energy, the environment, and social issues. Ah...yes...the (partial) list of publications:

The Age (Australia), Alpinist, Businessweek, Canoe and Kayak, Chicago Tribune, Climbing, La Della Donna Repubblica (Italy), Financial Times (UK), Forbes, GEO (Germany), GQ, HIV+, LA Times, National Enquirer, National Geographic Adventure, Newsweek (domestic and international), People, Popular Mechanic, Red Herring, Reimann Publications, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Star Magazine, der Stern (Germany), USA Today, US News and World Report, Wired, Alpine Audio (Europe), Black Diamond, Casey Family Programs, Cummins Diesel, Loudeye, Lucent, Mitsubishi, OTW (Sweden), Patagonia, Petzl, Philips Medical, Shurgard, Starbucks, United Way King County...