About

Light, shadow, composition. The rest is logistics.

Marriott Premium-Select Approved

Brand-standard shoots across the Select and Longer Stays portfolios — delivered DAC-compliant, accepted the first time.

100+ hotels, 14 states

From the Inn at 500 Capitol in Boise to a TownePlace on the Gulf. Still counting.

Twilight first

I scout the evening before the shoot, then give every evening to twilight. Real skies — and when the evening won't cooperate, I'm up at four for the sunrise.

Invited back

The compliment I trust is a client asking me to photograph their next property — or handing my name to someone else. Most of my work arrives that way.

I didn’t start here. My first career was in advertising, and my second was in optical disc manufacturing — I authored Blu-ray discs for small independent studios. Photography arrived sideways. My brother-in-law is a realtor who needed video for his listings. One morning his photographer didn’t show up. I shot the stills instead. For a long while, YouTube was my only instructor.

What kept me going was how hard it is. Architecture is still life at scale, and I’d argue it’s the most demanding genre there is — nothing moves, and there are rules. As the work got better, better subjects followed. One was a mid-century modern perched on the bluff above Boise: impeccable, timeless. I was about forty-four, standing in it, when I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. It’s still one of my top three favorite residential properties I’ve photographed.

I came to Boise in 1991 to attend Boise State University, and I never found a reason to leave. The Treasure Valley has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the country ever since — a good place to stand if you photograph buildings for a living. And I’ll defend Idaho’s sunsets against anywhere on earth except Hawaii.

Mid-century modern home on the bluff above Boise at sunset, the valley beyond — The mid-century on the bluff — Boise, 2018

The hotels started with the Inn at 500 Capitol. A client from my disc-authoring days was producing the grand-opening video and put my name forward. It’s the only free test shoot I’ve ever done — several photographers, one job — and I won it. The Residence Inn going up next door hired me off those frames. I was proud enough of that set to email the one Marriott photography address I could find, with a link to the gallery. They wrote back that they hadn’t added a photographer in at least five years. Two years passed. Then they wrote again. They’d reviewed about two hundred submissions, and I was in.

Since then, over one hundred hotels across fourteen states. I was granted an exemption to photograph the AC Hotel in downtown Boise, a brand just beyond my Marriott approvals. I knew exactly what that favor was worth, and I meant to earn it. That ground-level exterior of the AC and Element is the frame I’m proudest of. It came from a tripod beside my parked car, tethered to a laptop. I sat in the driver’s seat for two hours, watching the sun paint Boise’s newest skyline addition with its warm and changing light.

AC Hotel and Element Boise at dusk, seen from street level — both signs lit, the podium glass glowing — AC Hotel & Element — Boise. The frame from the driver’s seat.

I arrive the evening before the first production day and spend it scouting the angles that can’t be rescheduled. Every evening of a multi-day shoot belongs to twilight. I want a real sky, so I’ll take more than one run at it and keep the better one. When the evening won’t cooperate, I’m up at four a.m. for the sunrise. There isn’t much sleeping on a hotel shoot.

Things slip. An airline lost my luggage in Florida and cost me an entire day at a TownePlace on the Gulf. I shot sunrise to sunset for every day that was left and delivered the set. One property was finally ready a year and a half after the date we first put on the calendar. New hotels are like that. I plan for it.

When I’m not out chasing a sunrise, I’m somewhere in the Idaho backcountry with a golf club or a bow. Angela and I have been married twenty-five years. We have three kids — two boys, and a daughter.

Approved to photograph

AC Hotels
Aloft Hotels
Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy
City Express by Marriott
Courtyard by Marriott
Element by Marriott
Fairfield by Marriott
Four Points by Sheraton
Four Points Flex by Sheraton
Homes & Villas by Marriott International
Marriott Executive Apartments
Moxy Hotels
Protea Hotels by Marriott
Residence Inn by Marriott
Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy
SpringHill Suites by Marriott
StudioRes
TownePlace Suites by Marriott

Marriott’s Select and Longer Stays portfolios, plus independent hotels. Every brand shoot delivered DAC-compliant.

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