Four and a half years ago, I started college. Originally, I wanted to pursue a career in automotive design — to become one of a select few who craft the vehicles we encounter daily, to link the storied histories of brands to the aether that is the “future.”
Obviously, that didn’t exactly come to pass.
There are a number of reasons for this, personal and otherwise, but it ultimately boils down to two:
First: modern vehicle design (to me) is, by and large, becoming impersonal and unimpactful. That concept alone made me bored and, more importantly, afraid. I saw just how monotonous the industry had become. I associated “new” with “disappointment” and “soulless.” I didn’t want to be forced into the corporate compromise between beauty and profit.
Second: I value the story of what came to be more than being the creator of what is ultimately a corporate product. Call it ego, vanity, or whatever you will, but I desire to stand out.
Once I realized this, I knew something had to change.
I dropped out of my major, and soon after, I bought my first DSLR camera: a used Canon EOS 30D. Within a week, I started using it to take pictures of friends’ cars on the way to a meet. A few weeks after that, I took it to an event at VIR. I was hooked.
Thousands of photos later, it came time for an upgrade. A few tens of thousands of photos after that (alongside several lens and body error messages), it came time to make the shift to mirrorless. I bought a new Canon EOS R7, and never looked back.
The rest (like that 30D) is history.
Since then, I’ve begun to turn my hobby into a professional craft. I’ve worked for NC State as a photographer for almost a year now, and have attended dozens of racing events over the past two-and-change. This is my passion, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.