Welcome to my new website!

Well, after several days (weeks?) of blood, sweat, and tears, my new website is finally finished!……..well, sort of. It’s at a stage where I can happily publish it live, but there’s some still some details which I will be tweaking and additions I’ll be making as time goes on. For starters, I’ll be uploading quite a few blog posts, both old and new, which fell by the wayside as we entered wedding season and juggled time between shooting weddings, designing this site, and new-Dad-duties (my son was born in April). 

Why did I change up my site? A few reasons. I wanted to do a little re-branding so it seemed like a good time to update with a few new swanky features. The main reason, however, was that my previous CMS (Content Management System) was not really doing it’s job too well. It was a bit sluggish for the user and it’s important to me that my site is easy to understand and use.

It should only be fitting that I kick off a new photography site with a few images. My wife and I celebrated our anniversary recently and I find myself thinking about the time and place we first met: Japan. This was also the time I bought my first DSLR  camera and started shooting people, documenting my experiences over there. Why don’t I share a few of these images? It’s a little embarrassing looking at them now – I’m happy to say my photography skills have come along way since then – but they still hold a special place in my heart. 

A little background: I lived in a small village in the Nagano prefecture of Japan, teaching English like many foreigners working in Japan. I was over there for a little over 3 years, teaching at Toyama Juniour High School It was difficult at first but over time I developed a good relationship with the children and then the adults of the village. It was an amazing experience. The village had an annual festival – the Shimotsuki Matsuri, which was unchanged in over 800 years. All these photos were shot on a Nikon D90 with either a 18-105mm or a 70-300mm lens. I hope you enjoy the photos and the new website!