Compared to many of my filmmaker friends, I came to photography relatively late. I played around and documented my travels, but wouldn’t have called myself a photographer by any stretch.

I studied abroad in high school, and when I returned for my senior year many of my friends had already been through the highly sought-after the Berkeley High School photography class for beginners and were moving on to advanced courses. Clearly it was for those who knew what they were doing, not me with my tiny point and shoots! There was a “method” and I didn’t know it and was too embarassed to ask.

Nonetheless, I continued to gravitate towards film courses, and in due time I had to learn about cameras in order to keep up with my media production classes. I was surprised to find out that the “methods” I was so afraid of were really just useful guidelines.

As I began travelling more and more, I gained a reputation for always being the one with the camera. I carried this fat DSLR (thanks mom and dad!) around the globe, from Japan to Namibia, Montana to London. I got a lot more practice just capturing things that I found inspiring while exploring. And that camera is still clicking despite my dropping it in a river in Kerala!

I still wouldn’t call myself a photographer; that’s more my brother’s forte (check out Duncan King’s stuff if you have a minute!). But I love capturing beautiful things and recording memories.

Recently, I have been approaching photography as a way to learn for VFX. I started playing with film cameras to see how they capture light differently, and how I might mimic some of their imperfections for more convincing compositing.