By day, I’m a professional photographer, event consultant, and producer, working with Washington Talent (WTA) across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. That means decades behind the camera at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, corporate events, and everything in between, plus a hand in producing and staffing the entertainment side of those same events. It’s a job that runs on reading a room fast, keeping a hundred details straight, and still finding the shot nobody else caught.
On weekends, I trade the camera for tongs. I’m a KCBS-certified judge and a pitmaster on the competition circuit, which means a lot of early mornings tending a smoker, arguing gently about bark and smoke rings, and traveling to contests most people have never heard of. Low and slow isn’t just a barbecue philosophy for me, it’s basically a personality trait.
And somewhere in the margins of all that, I’m still a part-time 80s guitar player, picking up the instrument whenever I can steal an hour. It’s the one part of my week that has nothing to do with pleasing a client or a judging panel, just me, a guitar, and the same riffs I loved thirty years ago. Photography pays the bills, barbecue keeps me humble, and the guitar keeps me honest. Put it all together and you get Jackocracy: my little corner of the internet for whatever’s on my mind.
Behind the Scenes
I’ve been based in the DMV for most of my career, which means most weekends you can find me either behind a camera at somebody’s wedding or bar/bat mitzvah, or behind a smoker at a barbecue contest a few states away. Different crowd, same instinct: show up prepared, pay attention to the details everyone else misses, and make something good happen under pressure. Jackocracy is where I write about all of it, in whatever order it comes to mind.