My father first introduced me to the outdoors on our family tree farm, helping me understand what it meant to live with, appreciate, and understand our natural environment. My first boyhood trip to Red River Gorge solidified my desire to hike and explore the outdoors. From that point on, I started hiking, climbing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and traveling wherever I could. My travels quickly familiarized me with a lot of places across the U.S., including northern Georgia, the Smoky Mountains, the Tennessee and North Carolina sections of the Appalachian Trail, and New River Gorge, WV.  I documented all these trips photographically, which led me to my love of photographing the outdoors.

In college, I studied photography at the University of Louisville for two years, then moved on to study landscape architecture at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where I obtained my degree. After college, I moved to Georgia, and then later New Orleans. During college, I visited Zion in 2003 to see my brother, who worked for the National Park Service. I expected little but sand and desert, but my low expectations gave way to amazement by the vast cliffs, beautifullt fluted canyons, and almost limitless places to explore. After exploring the Narrows, The Subway, and Pine Creek Canyon in Zion, I was hooked on canyoneering. It combines the best of all outdoor experiences: climbing, hiking, exploring, scrambling, swimming and rappelling. When I found an opportunity to return to Zion, I jumped at it. I feel lucky to have found such a great organization in Zion Adventure Company in such an awesome environment. I can't imagine leaving.