I grew up in Kona, Hawaii. I wish I could say that Hawaii's natural beauty was my motivation to pick up a camera. But it was a friend who ran the now defunct SK8Portland.com and my interest in skateboarding from a young age that first put a 35mm SLR in my hand. My interest in photography only grew from there.

My early photographic experience was all in or around Portland, Oregon, which I called home for 8 years of my life. An interest in landscapes and nature was easy to stimulate with all the parks and scenic areas in close proximity. The Cascade Range, Central Oregon, and the Oregon Coast became popular destinations in my development.

My photography moved into the digital age with my first copy of Photoshop and a Nikon film scanner. Creating a website was the next logical step due to most of my family living at great distances and the fact that large files are difficult to manage via email. JVPhotography.net has been a great creative outlet to add to photography and forced me to learn some of the Internet's intricacies, which has helped my life in more ways then I can list.

My digital growth has continued with a digital SLR and a now complete digital workflow for prints and the web. Having spent a short time in a wet darkroom, I can say that I have no desire to move away from my "digital darkroom." I have many plans to improve my website, not only with added content, but with features like a search engine.

I'm now back on the West Coast, moving from Columbia, MD back to my old stomping grounds in Portland, OR. Maryland offered so many photographic subjects, but one thing I felt it lacked was easy access to nature, not to mention any real elevation differences. Expect to see more nature themed images added to my site.

Thank you for visiting my site, 09-18-07