Unlike most most professional photographers, I was not born with a camera in my hand and to be honest, photography was not my first love, scuba diving was. Born and raised in land-locked Ohio, I always had a fascination with the ocean. It must have had something to do with watching too many Jacques Cousteau television shows because I was obsessed with the strange new creatures, amazing colors and incredible marine life. Even though I grew up in Ohio, my grandparents were in Ft. Lauderdale so I came down to Florida for family vacations nearly every year where all I wanted to do was snorkel at the beach and look at all of the beautiful tropical fish. It was like swimming in an aquarium!
Fast forward a few years to college, I had just graduated from Ohio State with a business degree and wanted to treat myself with a gift before starting the full-time job hunt. While some kids back-pack through Europe or booze it up in some tropical vacation spot, I wanted to learn to scuba dive. So after several weeks of classes and freezing in the cold waters of Ohio’s lakes, I finally was a certified scuba diver, but stuck in Ohio. But back to the real world, I got a job in the pharmaceutical industry and lived and worked for a few years before I decided to get a little closer to my dream and move to Florida in 1997 to be a little closer to the ocean.
Once in Florida, I was able to feed my diving addiction, at least on the weekends. I would see so many exotic animals, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, and colorful corals but all I came away with was memories, until I decided to take up underwater photography. Thus became the beginning of a new love, capturing the amazing underwater world on film.
After I met, fell in love with and married Katie, we both encouraged our photographic hobbies until she was laid off from her banking/mortgage job in 2007. The mortgage industry was collapsing so I encouraged Katie to take the big leap and follow her dream to become a professional photographer. Katie Smith Photography was born. I continued to work in the pharmaceutical industry and provide moral support for Katie as she single-handedly built a business. Over the years, I would occasionally help her at photo shoots and began my transition from shooting sea life to shooting people. Finally in 2011, I joined Katie in the business full time.