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Q: Who were your early photographic influences?A: Annie Leibovitz. I remember seeing her work in Vanity Fair magazine when I was in high school. I loved the unconventional creativity and lighting of her celebrity work. She was one of the first female photographers in a male-dominated industry, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was the creativity of her work, and that is what put her at the top of the industry. When I applied to the Brooks Institute of Photography in high school, they asked the same question. To this day, she remains my most inspirational photographer.Q: When did you know you wanted to choose photography as your career path?A: I have always been good at two things: sports and art. I needed to find a way to make a successful living at one of them. I was an avid oil painter when I was younger. Once I took a photography class in high school at 16, I decided this would be the most lucrative way to make a living as an artist. My photography teacher started recommending different photography competitions for me to enter, and as I started to win competitions, he recommended I look at the Brooks Institute of Photography and the Pasadena College of the Arts. I got into both schools but picked Brooks%u2014you can%u2019t beat a campus that is a mansion in Montecito with ocean views. I had the best college experience. In my first class at Brooks, my teacher said, %u201cLook around you. Only six of you will graduate, and out of the six, only three of you will make your living as professional photographers.%u201d Being highly competitive, I looked around and said to myself, %u201cI will be one of the three.%u201d I never looked back or did anything else for a career from that point on.Q: How would you describe your photography style? Do you have a desired niche?A: My photography style is low-key, with a flair for the dramatics. The opposite of bright and airy. I would compare my style to that of old-world, more Renaissance-type art. I create composites for my clients from portraits I capture in the studio or underwater, and I composite them with images I take during world travels or paint in Photoshop. I definitely have a couple of desired niches. My low-key dramatic composite work is a niche on its own, and I also specialize in underwater portrait photography. I do a lot of underwater maternity work. There is something about being weightless and free of gravity while being pregnant. The water allows me to pose my clients and their maternity gowns in ways that the gravitational pull of the earth just doesn%u2019t allow. This, combined with doing composites, allows me to create surreal romantic portraits with a Renaissance flair for my clients.Q: What are the essential characteristics of a successful photographer?A: Perseverance, grit, and the ability to keep moving forward are the basics of being a professional photographer with a long career. You have to learn to become two people: your creative self and your business self. The two can never be the same person. The creative self is more emotional and gives all of yourself creatively and personally to your clients. The business self has to be more black and white%u2014you have to run the business self like a boss and hold to your prices and scheduling, or clients will run it for you. Knowing different cultures and how they do business has also helped me as a photographer. I have clients who come from different countries, and learning how their cultures haggle or barter has helped my sales. For instance, some cultures just need to know they are getting something extra, so if I add in an extra 8x10, that seals the deal and we can end with a successful sale.Q: Are you a fan of AI technology?A: AI is just part of moving forward and evolving with technology. You can%u2019t fight progress, or you will go out of business doing it. You have to find a way to make it flow with your business. There are a lot of great things for photographers to use with AI, from creating different backgrounds using prompts to different AI retouching apps that speed along basic retouching.Q: Have you experimented with AI?A: Yes, I have used MidJourney with AI to create different backgrounds for client composites. I have also recently used Evoto for basic client edits, such as slimming and makeup. While I still prefer to use my own backgrounds and art for my work, as I can often tell when something has been generated with AI, I am not afraid to experiment with AI if an image warrants it. I still like the more natural look, but AI can be a useful tool in certain situations.Exclusive Interview 44 MOST MAGAZINE - ISSUE 48