I became a professional photographer, videographer and writer in a unique way: I joined the U.S. Navy.
In 2003, feeling aimless and jaded after years of working in automated production, I walked into a recruiter's office and told the gentleman behind the desk that I wanted to be a journalist. Lo and behold, some time later I found myself graduating with honors from the same school where Hunter S. Thompson and Adrian Cronauer learned their trades. I have made photos and videos all over the globe. My footage has been featured on virtually every 24-hour news network. I even anchored my own newscast, broadcast live to a select audience of Sailors aboard the USS Saipan. I was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2009, but my love of photography, videography, and writing followed me wherever I went. As the Communications Coordinator for a small nonprofit in Bangor, I created educational videos to train community partners and publicity videos to increase name recognition and raise funds. As a program manager at a different nonprofit agency, I continued to hone my skills by writing, voicing, animating, and editing a 15-minute training video to reduce community stigma, paving the way for people who need services to access them without fear. The achievement I am proudest of, though, is Project Voice, a series of videos in which I interviewed people in long-term recovery from substance use disorder. The videos in this series gained more than 50,000 views over the year-long project, an accomplishment nobody at our tiny agency anticipated. |
Photo Courtesy of Tony Llerena Photography
|