Completely self taught, Mike started experimenting with cameras as a boy using a simple Agfamatic 110 film camera. Several cameras and many years later, he now works exclusively with Canon DSLRs.

Mike's photos have evolved greatly over the past six or so years, with a preference for the look of black and white over colour, and natural light over the studio. He grew up shooting Tri-X Pan and always enjoyed the way black and white film forced the viewer to look at an image differently – making them concentrate on shapes and textures - as opposed to being overwhelmed by the distraction of colour. Natural light, interesting locations – often involving water, rich blacks and high contrast – whether landscapes, portraits, or nudes, are part of his signature style. Mike does very little in the way of gimmicky post-production work. His goal is to have an image be a photograph…. not a digital painting.

For the past three years, he has been photographing people – predominantly alternative models - almost exclusively. But before settling on that, he allowed himself the opportunity to pursue an artistic side of his persona that had remained dormant for many years and he shot different aspects of photography – still life, landscapes, portrait work, sports, and so on, so as to not be pigeon holed into one thing without possibly trying something more enjoyable.

His early photos prominently featured rural and street scenes, and three to four years ago, he began to take an interest in photographing and posing people. Influenced by the likes of Arnold Newman, he wasn't looking to do studio photography with static backgrounds, opting instead to make shooting on location - with natural light and a more fashion/editorial theme his goal. To emphasize this further: he doesn’t shoot in a studio and is always on the lookout for great off beat locations to shoot in.

With the help of Stephanie Hodgert, a local indie fashion designer who hired him to shoot a selection of her hand made corsets, Mike began photographing local models. Word of mouth slowly gained him the interest of those wanting to collaborate with him and model for him.

In 2006, he began to shoot black and white artistic nudes as the result of a chance meeting. Considering himself a rather shy person, Mike says he never thought he would be comfortable shooting nudes or that it would become 1/3 of his portfolio. And yet the results seem to prove that he has a natural flair for creating what are consistently tasteful, pleasing and occasionally mildly erotic artistic images.

Fine art gives Mike his greatest creative outlet, inspires him to do more, push the envelope, and to work with people he would perhaps never encounter in his day-to-day life. Commercial, portrait and editorial work as a photographer is always welcome but will probably always remain secondary to his work as an artist.

Mike lives and shoots in and around London, Ontario, and is available for commission or hire. At this time he is not available for weddings.