I grew up in a tough part of town in Compton California. Growing up, I knew that each day I saw the sunrise was a blessing. Don't get me wrong, each day was also a stressful game of cat and mouse of dodging 9mm bullets and ducking the essays from the opposite side of town. Life was hard, but still good.

One day I found myself on the side of a deal gone wrong and ended up as part of a drug bust. This landed me in San Quentin for 12 to 20. In the joint I met a bunch of foolios from the hood and got into lots of trouble.

It was a nightmare gone worse when my cell mate ended up starting stuff with a vato from the next row over. Oh man, things were always sketchy from that day forward. I hated walking around and not knowing when i'll be ambushed out of association.

Fortunately things took a turn for the better when I met Kevin who was a photographer outside of prison. He ended up in the penn by accidentally damaging negatives from a wedding shoot...but that wedding turned out to be some gangsta who ended up pwning him to keep his family safe. Eventually he got caught for photographing some rival gangs wedding which really po'd the gang. Stuff happened and well, Here we were.

He showed me the basics of photography and it seemed cool. I though hey, why not shoot Velvia instead of bullets? So tha's what i decided to do when i got out.

I got out three years early on good behaviour and proceeded to get a normal 9-5 and save for my first kamera. Once I got it, I didn't turn back.

What I can say is, photography pays crap unless you do weddings (eh...no thanks). But it's still a helluva lot of fun.

What is also a lot of fun is mountain biking. So that's basically my life. Sleep. Eat. Photography. Mountain biking. Repeat.