Photographer & Creative Production Partner.

The images I care about most are never the technically perfect ones. They're the ones between poses. The moment someone stops thinking about the camera and starts being themselves. That's where the real image lives, and that's the work I chase.

I've spent nearly 15 years making images for brands that care about how their stories look and feel. The North Face, Procter & Gamble, Skechers, PopSockets, Crocs, VF Corporation. Publications like Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and GQ.

The Craft

The range is wide: studio fashion with hard, directional light. Lifestyle campaigns in desert sand and Colorado dust. Product work where you can feel the condensation on the glass. Editorial portraits where the subject looks like a person instead of a performance. Executive portraits for founders and leaders who need an image that actually signals who they are.

What holds it together is a consistent set of decisions. Light is a storytelling tool, not a technical exercise. I think about what the light needs to do for each image before I think about how to make it, and the approach shifts to match the emotional register of the subject. Color gets the same treatment. I use it to build worlds, not decorate frames, with a warmth bias across almost everything because warmth reads as human.

Then there's the people. The subjects in my work don't look like they're being photographed. They look like they're in the middle of something. Portraits read as conversations, not instructions. Fashion subjects are in motion, not in poses. That quality doesn't come from a lighting setup. It comes from how the set feels.

The Production

I run productions. I build teams, manage budgets, direct talent, and deliver campaigns without needing someone looking over my shoulder. I've led multi-stakeholder shoots with crews ranging from five to forty-plus people, managed post-production end-to-end, and built a curated roster of trusted collaborators over 14 years in this market. Global clients have trusted me to lead major campaigns with full creative and operational autonomy. That production intelligence is what separates hiring a photographer from hiring a production partner.

Before photography, I spent seven years in hospitality across New Orleans, Denver, and Boulder. That's where I learned the distinction that still runs every production I lead: service is what you do, hospitality is how you make people feel. I've been applying that to photography sets for nearly 15 years, and it's still the part of the work I'm most deliberate about.

I call my approach fierce collaboration. Leadership without ego. I hold the vision and make the calls, but I build an environment where every person on set contributes to the final image, and they know it.

Every shoot starts the same way. Before anyone picks up a camera, I get the entire team together: production crew, creative team, agency, brand. I introduce everyone, walk through the campaign concept, and unite the room under one goal. Then the music goes on and we get to work.

A gaffer with 20 years on commercial sets once told me he'd never seen a photographer do that. Not once. That stuck with me, because I've been doing it since the beginning. It's not a nice-to-have. It's how the best work gets made.

The result is that clients hire me for the work and come back for the experience.

Based in Denver. Available nationally.

And just in case you were wondering, Friend really is my last name. Not just awesome branding :)

Select Client List

The North Face, Procter & Gamble, Skechers, Altra Running, Crocs, PopSockets, Pepsi Co, VF Corporation, Brumate, Kari Traa, Halfdays