My History and A MUCH Needed Return

My history with photography

As far back as I can remember I have always loved creating pictures; it started when I held my first toy camera as a young child.  That gift was given to me by my late father.  So you could say he planted the seed of my creativity.

It was not until a tragic event, my mother being hospitalized for breathing issues, that I started doing photo restorations professionally.  In 2009 my Aunt passed away and her husband, my uncle Larry Kleve who owned Pride Portrait Company asked me if I was interested in taking over the company.  Well I said YES!!!  At the time Pride was mainly doing High School Reunions and Portraits.  Established in 1955 as the premier family owned photography business in California and most of the Western United States.  Our clients included Beverly Hills High, Hollywood, Bel Air, just to name a few.  I immediately went back to school to learn about these modern digital cameras or DSLR's (Digital Single Lens Reflex).  After a few introductory and advanced classes my uncle said I was ready for hands-on. 

RED CARPET STARTS:

Well I never knew how big my life was gonna be...  Once word got out that a photographer was in the house I kept getting invited to parties and red carpets.  But I soon learned that it was to take the photos.  Which I was fine with... More practice and maybe some payment from the photos.  My photography evolved and went from using a basic editor to then using Adobe Lightroom... That made a huge change.  But the red carpets did not.. The more photos I published on social media the more invites I got.  It was getting crazy that I'd be doing three red carpets a night.  What started out as doing one red carpet for a documentary "Love All Humans" turned into a nutcase; so to speak.
Then one day I got a phone call that changed my life or so I thought...  It was from a representative for the rapper P Diddy.  I went there and everything blew-up, in a good way.