I have lived in Central Florida most of my life and am now located in Ocala, literally around the corner from Silver Springs State Park. My weekday commute to Gainesville takes me though Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. I am fortunate enough to live within a 2-hour drive of numerous state and public parks teaming with wildlife of all types– including manatees, monkeys, bison, wild horses, cattle, birds of many different types, and of course alligators. In addition, my weekend explorations often take me to Daytona Beach, Orlando, or the nation’s oldest city of St. Augustine, FL. I often just wander the backroads of North-Central Florida, with no real destination other the unique Florida countryside itself.

I enjoy breaking out of the bubble of my day-to-day life as often as possible. The best way to do this is by traveling to destinations near and far, experiencing first hand the majesty of great and historic structures both natural and man-made.  I try to fully experience the places I visit by getting off the tourist trail. As much as possible, I want to get into the day-to-day live of the local people. The most tangible way to experience that is to walk on a street or in a market where all the signs are in an an alphabet I don’t recognize.  I enjoy the mere feeling of walking on a street in ancient city; knowing that people have been walking there just living their lives, doing their daily business for thousands of years.

Since moving to Ocala in 2013, my long time hobby of photography has evolved into an obsession with photographing the diverse central Florida wildlife. However, as much as I enjoy photography, I believe it is more important to live and truly experience life, rather than just photograph it. I take pictures purely for personal enjoyment while living my life; I do not live my life only to photograph it to put on a show for social media. I am definitely not a social media personality — although you can often find my photos on Facebook.

As amazing as a place may be, there is a time to put the camera down simply be in the moment. It is impossible for a photo to accurately capture the feeling of actually being in a place. As an acquaintance once said about a specific wild animal encounter, you can either have the photo or you can have the experience but you cannot have both.

I was born and grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. In 1983 my parents got tired of shoveling snow and moved to Florida. From the age of 11 until I started college I lived in Port Orange, FL, just a few miles from the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Famous Beach“ at Daytona Beach. I graduated from University of Central Florida and settled Orlando where I lived for nearly 20 years before a job opportunity lured me to Ocala.  Since 2017, I  now work as a web developer for the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).