I was born in Oakland, California in 1979, and I’ve lived in the East Bay my entire life.
latchkey kid — a school-aged child of working parents who spends part of the day unsupervised.
I grew up in the 1980s. I spent a lot of time alone, exploring, observing, and getting into trouble.
School was always a struggle for me. I was often bored or confused in classrooms. But I was always drawn to music, art, computers, and cameras.
photographer — one who takes pictures.
My first camera was a Kodak Disc 3500 — a bizarre contraption that captured lo-fi images onto a now-extinct type of film-cassette.
My first pictures were blurry, grainy, and usually poorly composed, but they were mine and I loved them.
THE NINETIES
dropout — a person who leaves school, college, or university before completing a qualification, or a person who lives in an unusual way.
Gilman Street 1995. Photo By Christan Larsen.
“The Barn” 1999. Photo by Sita Rupe.
In 1996, I 💯 aced the California High School Proficiency Exam and quit going to high school so I could focus all my energy on 🎵🎉🎸🌱🍻🎮💿🎧.
Throughout the late nineties and early 2000s, I played guitar in dozens of non-legendary punk bands, including Jack Mackerel, Bob Crane’s Finger, Drop Time, and Dirt Nap. But of those bands, the only ones that ever actually recorded any music (or indeed even had a single band practice) were called Wet-Nap, and The Cost.
Hope ya like screaming!
punk — a petty criminal, hoodlum, or ruffian.
The Cost on tour in 1999. Photo by Sita Rupe.
Throughout the ‘90s I played in punk bands, wrote and recorded music, and toured all over the US and Canada in a smelly old van with my best friends.
The Bay Area punk scene—especially 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley—was a powerful, inclusive space that taught me about radical thought, DIY values, and how to build community through art.
Gilman Street 1995. Photo By Christan Larsen.
THE TWO-THOUSANDS
winging it — doing something without proper preparation or knowledge; improvising.
In the early 2000s, I worked in various jobs including Sad Telemarketer, Bored IT Guy, and Terrible Mechanic.
In between jobs I went on solo adventures like backpacking in Europe and motorcycle camping trips across North America.
When I traveled, I took pictures with an Intel Pocket PC Camera, the cheapest digital camera I could find at the time.
I wanted to take lots of pictures, but I couldn't afford to develop a lot of film, so when digital cameras started coming out, I bought one as soon as I could (barely) afford it, so that I could take hundreds and hundreds of low-quality photos.
Low-quality digital photos (2000-2005):
kismet — a hypothetical force or personified power that determines the course of the future.
When I started studying photography, I bought a used Pentax K1000 (35mm film camera), and later a Nikon D70 (Digital SLR camera).
I started taking pictures of everything and everyone around me and I never stopped.
Film and digital photographs (2006-2009):
In 2006, I decided to go back to school to study photojournalism and filmmaking.
I had some amazing teachers in college who really inspired me to pursue visual storytelling as a career.
That same year, I met my future wife, Briana — a brilliant artist and educator.
Briana instantly became my favorite person in the world, and has been a steady source of inspiration, humor, and perspective ever since.
I also wrote and directed two very silly short-film projects while studying film at San Francisco State University. They’re basically music videos that nobody asked us to make for songs that came out before music videos were invented.
My first student-film was Campus Cowboy. Filmed on a Bolex 16mm film camera, and shot entirely on SFSU’s campus (because we weren’t allowed to take the camera home), Campus Cowboy is a wordless story of modern alienation about a cowboy who doesn’t quite fit in at a university.
My second film-school project was Baby Doll, a chilling tale of supernatural revenge! A jilted witch turns to the dark arts to torment her selfish ex-boyfriend! With hilarious results? You decide!
THE TWENTY-TENS
In 2010, I graduated from San Francisco State University, quit my day jobs, and focused entirely on photography.
photojournalist — a journalist who communicates news with photographs.
From 2010–2017, I worked as a staff photographer for The East Bay Express, covering life in the East Bay. Being a local photojournalist gave me access to people and moments I never would've seen otherwise, and helped me learn how to connect with strangers through a lens.
That same year, I married Briana and over the next few years, we welcomed two amazing kids into the world.
family — a group of people living together as a unit.
By 2012, I was a new dad, a new-ish husband, and a working photographer. Most days I managed at least two out of three.
Throughout the 2010s, I continued taking photos of all the important/interesting people, places, and things in my life.
By this time, I had upgraded to a full-frame digital SLR camera (Canon EOS 5D series) and some good lenses.
I took pictures just about every time I left the house.
Photographs (2010-2019):
I took even more pictures when I stayed at home.
Family photos (2012-2019):
In 2017, I became fascinated with aerial photography. Affordable camera drones were finally a reality, and they were now small enough that I could carry one around in my backpack wherever I went.
Suddenly, I had my own portable flying camera.
drone — an uncrewed aircraft guided by remote control or onboard computers.
I captured thousands of photos and hours of video footage from the air above The Bay Area and beyond.
Aerial photography (2017-2019):
In 2018, I released a short film called The Bridge and Tunnel Crowd — a story told entirely through aerial timelapse footage and scored with my own music.
My film caught the attention of a creative director at Recreation, a small but forward-thinking ad agency in San Francisco.
Filming a live vascular surgery operation for Recreation in 2019.
In 2019, they brought me on as a jack-of-all-trades visual storyteller — photographer, drone pilot, cinematographer, and video editor.
And I filmed and edited a short educational documentary about California wildfires and climate change for Pearson Publishing.
It was a chance to work on a wide range of creative projects and sharpen my skills across disciplines, all while collaborating with a team that valued experimentation and originality.
During this time, I also started writing about drone technology for Engadget, reviewing the latest gear and sharing what I'd learned about this rapidly evolving field.