I grew up in South Carolina, spending most of my time outside in the yard with the neighborhood kids, making forts or throwing tennis balls at each other, canoeing & hiking with my family, or playing soccer.

One Christmas, my aunt and uncle gave me a little camera and a book on how to shoot optical illusions. Something about seeing the world differently through a camera stuck with me in a way I didn’t fully understand until later.

After high school, I worked at a summer camp and got it in my head that I wanted to start my own outdoor brand someday. I bought an old Canon Rebel T2i from the media department — mostly to document ideas. On a visit home, I ended up shooting some photos of my niece for my brother. I remember putting the camera down and telling him, “I think I want to make this my career.”

I started working at an outdoor store to learn the business, and they asked me to start shooting photos for their brand. I said yes, of course, showed up with my beat-up Canon Rebel T2i, and that’s where photography became an obsession. I’d finish shooting at work and go shoot more. I’d travel somewhere and come home with a thousand frames. At some point, I stopped calling it a hobby.

In 2020, my wife and I founded Second Floor Media, a commercial photography and video production company based in South Carolina.

I love photographing people who are passionate about what they do. The chef who’s been perfecting the same recipe for twenty years. The gaucho who knows that land better than anyone alive. The backpacker who packed too heavily and is smiling anyway. That’s what I’m looking for when I show up somewhere with a camera.

Let’s make something together.

mike@yoursecondfloor.com
(843)245-7162

Available for brand campaigns, editorial commissions, and documentary projects.