← off duty

Chasing light
off the clock.

Photography is how I practice the same craft in a different medium: composition, constraints, and knowing when to stop fiddling and press the button. These are the tools I trust and the frames I still like a year later.

The gear.

  • camera

    Nikon D850

    A workhorse. The battery outlasts every outing, and once you put in a little practice, every setting sits one dial or button away, no menu diving. It is fast, and the files carry a ton of detail: 45 megapixels that let a crop become the photo.

  • lens

    Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

    The one that lives on the camera. Six of the nine frames below came from it: wildlife, dogs at full sprint, and compression that stacks a horse against harbor cranes half a mile back.

  • lens

    Nikkor 35mm f/1.8

    The indoor and dusk lens. Wide enough for a kitchen conversation, fast enough for string lights at blue hour without flash.

  • accessory

    [Accessory · edit me]

    [Tripod, filters, strap, bag: the one that earns its space · edit me]

Selected frames.

  • The scale never reads until you see the river and realize how far down it is. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 70mm · f/8 · 1/250 · ISO 64
  • Ball acquired. Business concluded. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 175mm · f/2.8 · 1/2000 · ISO 64
  • Waited for the rings to spread just enough. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 200mm · f/3.2 · 1/200 · ISO 320
  • Half the city on one crescent of sand. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 100mm · f/8 · 1/250 · ISO 64
  • Old work and new work sharing the same waterfront. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 200mm · f/2.8 · 1/200 · ISO 64
  • I'm always looking up at the sky, and I love airplanes; this frame has both. That plane was seriously high up, and this beast of a camera and lens still pulled it in. It's my iPad wallpaper now, so it rides along on every trip, movies included. Nikon D850 · 70-200mm f/2.8 · 200mm · f/2.8 · 1/2500 · ISO 64
  • Blue hour, string lights, and someone refusing to admit they are sleepy. Nikon D850 · 35mm f/1.8 · 35mm · f/1.8 · 1/80 · ISO 500
  • My most photographed model, by a wide margin. I love when she gets in her playful moods and hands me faces like this one. No direction from me; she just knows. Nikon D850 · 35mm f/1.8 · 35mm · f/4.5 · 1/200 · ISO 800
  • My parents. Forty years married, and it's not often I catch them being lovey with each other, so when it happens the camera comes up fast. I love them. Nikon D850 · 35mm f/1.8 · 35mm · f/1.8 · 1/30 · ISO 200