Before I became an optical designer I was a freelance photojournalist and photographer. I have a degree in fine arts, applied visual arts from Oregon State University. I worked for a few different publications before I decided it wasn't right for me.

My interested in photography and cameras pushed me to find a new career when I could still be around cameras but I get to be on the technical side of them.

I went back to school and studied physics and optical engineering at the University of Arizona. I began my career traveling between the Bay Area, Taiwan, and mainland China, typically around every 2 weeks, for about 3 1/2 years. I worked for a plastic lens manufacturer and learned a ton about optics manufacturing, especially with regard to plastic optics - including how to design plastic lenses (it's quite different from glass lenses).

I have 8 years of experience design and building optics products, and have worked in a variety of fields - from consumer electronics, to automotive, to aerospace.

Today I do project based work and specialize in custom optical designs, and mechanical packaging for optical components. I bring knowledge of designing products to actually be manufactured, and design optical and mechanical components to work together. I believe mechanical design and optical design should be parallel thought processes not one before the other, that they can blend together to make a beautiful, functional, and robust product. I am always influenced by my fine arts background and believe that products need to look good. maybe not so much form over function, or form follows function, but some where in the middle - function informs aesthetic. I believe it is just as important to have a product that people feel drawn and attracted to (which is individual to each product) as it is one that functions beautifully and is reliable. I enjoy bringing products and concepts to life.