I bought my first camera in summer going into my sophomore year of college in 2021. I started by shooting sports photos for my school newspaper, The Chanticleer, for which I wrote and took pictures for all four years, and served as the sports desk editor my junior and senior years.
The fall of my sophomore year, I didn’t have the greatest equipment. But with a cheap camera and just a couple of stock lenses, I went out and shot whatever I could at Coastal- football, basketball, lacrosse, etc. Eventually, the work I was posting on my personal Instagram (before I even had one for my content) captured the attention of a couple of teams, including the women’s lacrosse, basketball, and men’s club lacrosse teams, all of which reached out and asked me if I’d be interested in working with them directly before the end of the fall semester.
I jumped right in and began working very closely with the women’s lacrosse team and also did a lot of work for the men’s basketball team. I was the primary source of content for and ran both of these accounts. I traveled everywhere with the women’s lacrosse team, which was incredibly fulfilling and beneficial for my development. I did the same for the club lacrosse team, although that was quite a bit more casual as a lot of those guys were my friends and I shot all of that for fun. I did both photo and video in college, although I did focus mainly on video.
My work made an immediate impact on the @coastalwlax Instagram account, and over my three years working with the team, I more than doubled the followers, expanding the team’s reach by collaborating the posts with big accounts like NCAA Lacrosse, IL Women, and more that each had over 100,000 followers. My videos consistently saw 10k+ views, whereas before I stepped in there were very minimal videos (less than five I believe) that ever reached 10k.
I continued to improve my craft and rapidly grew my own accounts (@cre8stapes for video and @cre8shots for photos), shooting everything from Coastal sports to professional sports from the stands, summer lacrosse, graduation photos, weddings, and more. My senior year, I was brought on to be the director of creative video for the consistently nationally ranked baseball team, which was my favorite experience of my career so far. From traveling with the team to shooting games where we blew out #11 Wake Forest or walked games off on home runs, some of my most exhilarating moments as a creator came working for the baseball team.
After I graduated, I worked a summer internship for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League, where I was a videographer. From there, I interviewed for and ultimately accepted a job with Canes Baseball and its associated baseball academy, PDG Academy, where I have worked since August 2024, fulfilling the most important step of my career: landing a job doing what I love. I can’t wait to see where my work takes me next!