About John

I grew up in Scotland, and photography wasn't something I went looking for – a dear friend, David Andrews, introduced me to it, and it became the passion that's shaped the rest of my life.

I moved to America when I was 30, not long after losing my mother – that loss was part of what brought me here. My father moved back to his beloved Ireland until his passing. On one of my last visits, he made a huge "Irish Breakfast" for my friend Paul and I. These days I still have family in both Scotland and Ireland, along with a brother in Manchester. I've made the trip back for years, and those two countries will always feel like home. That's to say, you've been warned: you have to put up with my accent!

I started out shooting custom portraits, and that's where I fell in love with light – learning how it shapes a face, a room, a moment. From there I moved into family photography, and found something I didn't expect: a love for the unexpected. The moment nobody planned is usually the one worth keeping.

For years, weddings were my weekend calling – I've shot them nationwide and beyond. During the week, my focus is commercial work, and it's given me some good stories along the way. I remember driving up to a shoot for The Weather Channel and passing a line of fire trucks on the way in – I asked what had happened, and it turned out they were part of the job, called in to hose down the set for the rain shot the client wanted! Between jobs like that and custom work in cities across the country, traveling for shoots and working alongside art directors, stylists, and makeup artists to build the exact image a client needs – it's a challenge, and one I've always welcomed.

A few years ago, a client asked me to photograph her horse on a beautiful Tennessee farm, and that turned into another genuine passion. Working with the horses themselves – not just their owners and handlers – taught me how much personality each one has, and how different and magical it is to capture the bond between a horse and the person who loves it.

Whatever your photography needs are, I'm confident I can meet them. What keeps me in this work, more than anything, is the relationships. Sometimes it starts with commercial work – shooting a dad's factory, or a lawyer's practice for his website – and turns into something more personal as I get to know the family behind the business: their daughter's wedding a few years later, then a family portrait with the first grandchild. Getting to watch a family grow across decades, one session at a time, is something I don't take for granted.

And sometimes it's simpler than that – at the end of a family portrait session, when everyone jumps in the pool, I grab the camera for a few underwater shots and jump in right behind them. Coming up laughing, knowing I've caught something real – that's usually the moment that reminds me I'm doing exactly what I love.