THE SHORT BIOGRAPHY ON MY WORK__________________________________________

For Digital, I will admit I use my Nikon Digital more than I would like, this is due to the hard to find film, and it does make the jobs a whole heck of lot faster. Even with digital format photography and all the great programs that are out there, I do my best to try to stay away from them, but at times my creative heart starts to flutter from time to time when I come across an image that could be a tad bit more fun.

For Film, My work is to maintain the highest standards, I personally perform all the creative aspects involved in my work. I expose each photograph utilizing available light to capture the natural color and beauty. With also using extra light from a 1984 manual QB-350 off shoe flash for the graphics feel of the subject to make it POP! . Personally crafted filters and additional lighting is made from mediums such as plastic, soil, paste, and tracing paper. I print each photograph utilizing a non-traditional darkroom using traditional techniques and work from large format (4" X 5") or medium format (6cm. X 7cm.) color negatives. These larger negatives have superior clarity resulting in a much sharper print. I work with four different types of formats, Polaroid 4x5 , Polaroid 600 film, 120format film, and 35format film. Photoshop is never used for anything but watermarking. Each photograph is then mounted and matted using acid-free museum board when printed. I do all this work personally without the use of any apprentices or assistants.



TO THE ONES WHO LIKE TO READ____________________________________________

I decided to write my own bio, rather paying crazy money to have someone else that doesn't know me at all write a bio for the soul reason that they're an award winning author. The only author I can think of that I would have hired would have been Andy Greenwald or Charles Bukowski if he was still alive. Maybe he would say something like, ""You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics." I'm not saying I'm here to save the world with my photography, but it could be a start. I shoot anything that moves, and if it doesn't move I'll think about it.

When I was eleven my grandparents started realizing I had some sort of artistic blood in me, they just didn't know the medium of the root of the wiring for art. They did what every grandparent would do, they bought me everything that had to do with each medium. I took to painting, I would draw all the time but always made sure I carried that old Nikon FG-20 with a fixed 35mm 1.8 . Let's just say I was a little obsessed, lots of kids had a doll, GI-Joe, or a hot wheels car they carried with them, I wasn't normal then, and to be honest, not so much now.

At the age of 14 is when I started becoming a even more less normal then ever. I would close myself off with the Smiths, and write crappy poetry. Long story short my little doll "the best friend and camera in my world" would slowly stop riding on my shoulder as I left the house, days became week, weeks became… you know where I'm going with this sad soppy story. I just made it out of high school in San Jose California, and one of the only choices for me for higher education was in Greenwood, South Carolina. The crazy thing is that they offered a photography / graphic design program.

I got my first job with the Citizen News in Edgefield, SC as the county editorial photographer. I worked with them for about 3 years until I found myself liking drugs way too much. I sobered up, found Jesus in Avril's living room. Maybe it wasn't Avril but I did find Jesus, and He changed my life around. After the church I was going to fell apart, and being judged for my past He never gave up on me even when I gave up on myself along with photography. I started getting side jobs I got from shooting rock shows while I wasn't on stage with the bands I sang with and ended up getting clients such as SG, Vera, ETID, AILD, and tons of other regional, national and local indie bands and pin up models. At the time in 2001 some friends and I came up with the name indiesunday while sitting around talking about how the church needed to be more hip, and have a body that wouldn't shun and judge people. It would be like having an independent Sunday of worship. I did this until 2006, then I found the church we had been talking about in Charleston, SC.

I stopped hanging out on the fence and jumped right in, started surfing again and gave my whole life and everything I was about to Jesus. I ended up going on a mission trip to Kenya, Africa with my bride and the passion of when I was 11 years old came back. I started shooting and couldn't stop, I then found that God had wired me to do photography, the only problem before is that I wasn't doing it for Him. When I returned to the US I finally found my calling, I started this company with an old Nikon D50, a Polaroid, a 1950s medium format camera, and a Nikon F10 35mm. Now I'm still shooting Nikon, and wouldn't have it any other way, I don't feel that I'm just a Nikon owner but a photographer. This company isn't just owned by me but ran and owned by Him. You might think it's cheesy but I wouldn't be as successful as I am with out what I have found. I'm always looking for new friends, you can't have enough friends, like Charles Bukowski said, "You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics." so let's be friends and help save someone. We could have saved Britney before she shaved her head but we didn't know each other then.

Thank you, John Lotterhos

PS. If you took the time to read this, Great Job, now you should know all about me before you hire me, this makes it easy for conversation. If you didn't maybe you didn't have time, maybe you don't like reading, maybe my style of writing isn't what you feel it should be. That's all okay, but what are we going to talk about when we meet? I guess we could talk about why Laguna Beach was the worst idea for TV media ever. "there's a personal story behind that " maybe we could talk about it as we're saving one person at a time together.
Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn't have written my own Biography.