After months of working on my new website, I’m excited to finally have it up and running. I’ve had websites in the past, but this one is different. This one is a lot more meaningful to me because I’ve spent so many long nights trying to make it look creative and reflect my style.

The biggest difference is my new blog! I’m excited because I’ve always (secretly) wanted to have a blog, but I never thought I was interesting enough for people to read it, nor did I know what in the heck to write about. I’ve decided it’s time to overcome that feeling because blogging is important. I believe it’s a way of showing people who you are.  Most of the photographers that inspire me all write blog posts…and I read every single one (most of the time). I feel like I know most of them just because they let me into a little part of their lives through their blog posts.

So for that reason, I hope to blog more than just sneak peaks of photography sessions and creative projects I’m working on. I’m going to blog about past shoots, life experiences, and even my thoughts. Hopefully, someone else will read it and keep coming back for more (I know I’ll always have at least one reader….thanks, mom).

I’ll start it off with a little bit about myself. If you read my “about me” section….that’s just the snippet of the Sparknotes version. This is the real deal.

I spent most of my childhood in a small town called Marshall. It had about 300 residents and was one of the many small towns that made up Parke County, Indiana. In the third grade, I signed up for 4-H. I chose to do the photography project. Though my first year’s project was put together with photos from a disposable camera, and the background was covered in different colors of blowpens (when those were a thing), it was the start of my love for photography.

After the summer going into the 6th grade, I thought my world was falling apart when my mom told me that we were going to be moving school districts. We moved to a town called Clinton about 25 minutes away. It was hard for me at first, but I got over it like all kids do. Now, I’m very grateful we did move because I had a lot more opportunities and I wouldn’t be who I am today if we hadn’t.

In my first year of high school, I desperately wanted to join the yearbook staff. I’d continued doing photography in 4-H every year and I now had my own DSLR camera. I found out that freshmen weren’t allowed to be in yearbook due to scheduling conflicts. That didn’t stop me. I went to nearly every home sporting event of every sport to take photos to submit to the yearbook, even though I couldn’t be on the staff. My sophomore year, I was finally a part of the staff and that’s when I fell in love with layout design. It was such an awesome feeling to be able to not only have my photos published in a book the entire school was going to see but to also get to design how the pages were displayed. Throughout high school, my classmates always knew me as the camera guy. You won’t find me in many photos because I was always behind the camera. Classmates started asking me to take their families photos and even their senior photos. That is what inspired the thought of ever having my own photography business.

When college finally came around, I knew I wanted to go away for school. I loved high school, but I was the person that was friends with everyone at school but didn’t really hang out with many people outside of school. I wanted to go away and meet new friends and start fresh. I attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. My first semester, I was undecided on what I wanted to study. I knew I wanted to be creative, but I also knew I wanted to make money. After a lot of thought, I chose to major in creative advertising. Throughout my time at Ball State, I was very involved. I was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, I was a cheerleader for two years, I was a campus tour guide for two years, and I was a part of the largest student organization on campus called BSU Dance Marathon which raised money for Riley Hospital for Children. College was a lot of fun for me. It was the greatest four years of my life and I would go back in a heartbeat.

Now, I’ve moved to Indianapolis, and I’ve been trying to accept my place in the “professional” world working 8-5 as a graphic designer. I would eventually love to be able to be a photographer and freelance designer full time, but as of now, I’m flying by the seat of my pants just trying to figure out how to be an adult.

Wow, I wrote a lot. If you’re still here, kudos. I warned you, though. Anyway…now you know a little more about me. As you can see…I’m pretty average. But I’m a fun time, I promise! 🙂

-Max