My Story
Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, I began pursuing photography in January 2016 to document skiing adventures both on and off the mountain. It was in September 2019 that I joined Flickr and started sharing my photos to the website. My photos now have 10 million views, as of November 2021.
After coming out of the closet in 2019, I met my significant other, Colton Lazzarotto! In January 2020, I had the idea of us starting our own photography business, which would become Foxbear Photography.
When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Colton and I decided to get an apartment in Portland, Oregon and go back and forth from Portland to Boise to make the most of getting to work remotely. We now have our live setup so we can go back and forth from Boise to Portland whenever we want! Oregon offers many wonderful photography opportunities.
In January 2021 I joined the competitive photography website known as Photocrowd. My photos have won hundreds of various awards, placing in the top 1% of international contests. My photos have gotten recognition from Photoplus, Canon Camera's official magazine, and elite photographers from across the globe.
My photo "The Puddle Portal" has received many awards both locally and internationally and is my most acclaimed photo. The image shows the Idanha Hotel in Boise displayed as a reflection in the puddle of an alley. In September 2021, the photo was nominated as a shortlist candidate for China Base & Travel’s contest "Moments", which was hosted through Photocrowd.
I’ve contributed photographs to various Wikipedia pages, including New York City, Statue of Liberty, Vincent van Gogh, California, Oregon, etc. The Wikipedia pages I have photos published to have gotten more than 50 million views since I published the photos to the pages.
I’ve also started contributing photos to Getty Images and China Visual Group through the website 500px. This is a chance for me to get paid for my work like Foxbear Photography.
Since I started entering photography competitions at local fairs in Idaho, I’ve won various ribbons in photography contests hosted by Western Idaho Fair and Canyon County Fair. Though the 2020 contests were cancelled due to COVID-19, ribbons won in the three other years (2018, 2019, and 2021) include eight 1st place ribbons, the Canyon County Merit Award, and various 2nd and 3rd place ribbons.
Getting my foot in the door with photojournalism is important to me.
In July 2020, Brain Holmes of KTVB News Channel 7 Boise covered a story I wrote and photographed about mountains goats causing a traffic jam on a mountainous highway.
On occasions I’ve sent in my photos to Portland news station KOIN while photographing in Oregon. As I've posted many photos of Cannon Beach to Foxbear Photography’s Instagram page, the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce shared one of my photos to their Instagram page after complimenting my work. I’ve helped Foxbear Photography’s Instagram reach more than 4,000 followers, and my Twitter photography page has 1,500 followers.