a little about

JD

Welcome I’m JD

It’s great to meet you.

In high school, I was building a portfolio and ready to go to RIT for photography. But instead, it was the early 2000’s and I ended up deciding to serve. So after 6 years in the US Navy I picked a camera back up in 2010 and photographed my first wedding volunteering to photograph a wedding for a Marine that couldn’t afford to have all the bells and whistle’s. Fellow enlisted will understand that. Things snowballed quickly from there. During that time, I never trained with or worked for other photographers and I think that is what allowed me to create a style that is uniquely me and completely uninfluenced by all the coming and going trends.

A few years later I was moving to back to my hometown of Philadelphia and would end up quitting my job and just photographing weddings full time.

The last 15 years have been a whirlwind. I’ve been award multiple best in the world photography awards and have been truly honored to document 500+ wedding days and capture countless moments and stories that I know my couples cherish to this day. If you want to tear up a bit with me let me know.



And here we are in 2024. Picking up again and heading west to live in Phoenix and spend my foreseeable future photographing weddings all over the Southwestern US.

Needless to say I couldn’t be more excited and I can’t wait to photograph countless more moments that my future couples will be able to cherish as much as my past couples do.

As far my photography goes, I’m an avid photojournalist. Sadly that has become a trendy buzz word in the wedding photography world so I don’t say it much anymore. Instead, I hope that my photos speak to the real and genuine, unstaged, moments and stories that I love to capture in my work. My favorite photographer hands down is Sebastião Salgado. I of course have all the Magnum books to study and Robert Franks The Americans along with lots of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Who coined my favorite concept of the “decisive moment” that I so often live by. But Salgado to me is in a world of his own. His ability to evoke emotion and tell a complete story in a single photograph….. Yea, I can stare at his work ALL day!

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera…. They are made with the eye, heart, and head.

– Henri Cartier-Bresson