Growing up, I always had an interest in weather. I used to watch VHS tapes of tornadoes all the time as a kid. Whenever a severe storm caused us to take shelter, I would stay outside and watch it as long as I could. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my first response was always "a storm chaser". As I got older, and life happened, that thought sort of fell out of my head, although I would still stand outside and watch storms.  I pretty much enrolled in photography school on whim. I was stuck in a dead end job, and didn{t have much going on in my life. I always tell new photographers not to get discouraged with their work, like everything else, it takes time. My photography was absolutely terrible when I first started. I had no business having a camera in my hand, let alone going to school for it. Thankfully I had an amazing support group of professors, faculty, and peers. I never could have done any of this without them.  I started out shooting a lot of sports, which I enjoyed, but I kept that storm chasing thing in the back of my head the entire time. Once I got comfortable using a camera, I set out to get some storm photos. I got my first lightning photo in August of 2009, and was instantly hooked. I began studying meteorology, and chasing storms every chance I got. Weather has become my passion, my calling, my life. Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to make a living from chasing storms. Thankfully, my time at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies has enabled me to be a well rounded photographer, and there is no situation that I am uncomfortable shooting.