Righteous Nixon

I am a 42 year old architectural photographer (also do some furniture & product photography). I have my B.F.A. & M.F.A. with my focus in photography. After graduating with my M.F.A., I went to work for an architectural photography firm where I worked for almost 5 years. I left in 2003 and started my own architectural photography business and have been shooting on my own ever since. Its a pretty unique job, but like most jobs it has both its good and bad aspects. One of my favorite aspects to my job is that I only work 5 months out of the year, from mid-April to mid-September, and then have the rest of the year off. It affords me a ton of time to shoot pictures for myself and focus on my other interests and hobbies. The worst part about my job is the long hours during my shooting months. 80-90 hour weeks are very common, especially during the latter months. Its definitely not a job for the faint of heart. I have gone through my fair share of assistants over the years. They just get burned out from the insane hours. 

My interests include large format photography (4x5 & 8x10 - film only!), woodworking, drawing (mostly charcoal), growing bonsai trees, crafting wire trees, amateur astronomy, astrophotography, optics, meteorology, storm chasing, hiking, backpacking, camping, kayaking/canoeing, mountain biking, skiing, scuba diving, animals & protecting the environment, collecting, reading, watching movies, surfing the internet and last but not least, continuing my education until the day I die. 

I have been playing video games since I was roughy 6 years old so for me, its not so much an activity as much as its simply a part of who I am. For as long as I can remember, gaming has played a significant role in my life. My uncle purchased the original home version of Pong back in the mid 70's. He would come over on the weekends and set it up and we would spend hours playing. My first gaming system was an Atari 2600, followed by an Intellivsion and Colecovision. From there I jumped over to the computer side with the Vic 20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga 500 etc. I have purchased every major console released in the US with one exception, the Wii U, and I still own all of my systems to this day, including all of the games I purchased for them (the collector in me!). My basement really looks like a video game museum. I just finished building my first gaming PC like 9 months back so I have all my gaming bases covered. I absolutely despise fanboys and the overall image they give the gaming community. I do not believe in pledging my allegiance to a console company. I believe in having access to any quality game that comes to market, regardless of the platform its released on. 

Any bio of mine would be incomplete without mentioning collecting. Collecting plays a HUGE role in my life and has every since my childhood. I currently collect lithographs, limited edition prints, replica weapons (mostly sci-fi), vintage/antique camera's and lenses, vintage Orange Crush memorbilia, 1st edition books, art books & sketchbooks, coins/bullion, wildlife & duck stamps, statues (Sideshow, Prime 1, XM, WETA etc.), comics (mostly golden age and silver age), original comic art, anything and everything by Michael Turner, vintage Belstaff and Barbour jackets, unopened original series Wacky Packages, video games/video game systems, railroad and silver certificates, playing cards (mostly limited edition decks), antique/vintage pocket watches etc. My father turned me onto collecting at a very young age and it really stuck with me. 

So to sum this all up, I am basically a passionate film based large format photographer and an obsessed collector, one that absolutely loves the outdoors.