On Cooking:
Cooking is my way of saying words that I find myself struggling to. It is my way of expressing gratitude and as an affirmation of respect and friendship. Rooted more deeply, cooking is my way of showing love to those that I care about. I hold myself to a high standard when creating food, such that I can never reach a ceiling where I am hindered by my own confidence. It gives me drive to be better, not just within my work, but also within my day-to-day life.
It is also my art. Outside of composing and scoring music, writing poems, and creating flower arrangements, cooking is my art that I can express through texture, color, and flavor. It adds a dimension on top of the visual aspect of cooking, but also how deeply rooted it is within the environment in agriculture, and sourcing of ingredients. It shows me a facet of the world that is intertwined within our daily lives, but moreover allows me to find connections where I least expect them.
On Wildlife Photography:
I use a Canon R5 MkII, and I swap around 3 lenses, one 200-800 Telephoto, one 100mm macro, and one 24-105mm zoom lens.
What fascinates me, and drives by in my photography is rooted in the statement of “To see the unseen”. I worry constantly about the state of the natural world and how it affects us now, and how it will affect us in the future. As such, even though not all my pieces tell a direct story, I want people to be inspired.
A spark of wonder is something that I look for when I publish or post any of my photography. I want people to see an image and feel that the nature around them in a way that is overlooked in daily life. It’s about reminding people that there is a world outside of their daily lives. Thriving ecosystems, intricate species-relationships, towering forests and the dread of human influence. These are things that push me to keep taking photos, but also what pushes me to make my documentary in an attempt to tell these stories and ignite a spark of wonder. I wanted people to see that 2 high schoolers could accomplish something great, even when resources were limited.
It is what passion and wonder can do in tandem with each other, but above all else, documenting species, learning about the world through these species, and contributing to citizen science such as eBird or iNaturalist, are my main drive towards protecting the planet we all live on.