Meg and I first met in 1999 as freshmen in chemistry class in high school, although it wasn't until 5 years later in college when we started dating. It was then that we realized how alike we really were. Both with our head in the clouds, addicted to creativity and a healthy sense of adventure. We found common ground in music and would write songs together often. I admired how selflessly she showed her love in all of her relationships. How bubbly she was. She passed on her contagious positivity to everyone around her. She loved how exciting her life was around me, she wanted a life that was as big as her imagination and I truly believed that anything was possible. As we got older it made more and more sense that we were drawn to photography, due to our great ability to appreciate the world around us. Now, years later, I can honestly say, that we are living the life that we were meant to. ​
I got my first camera when I was 7 years old. It was not a nice camera, a Kodak that you had to attach one of those long rectangular disposable flash canisters to, that you got about 10 uses out of before you had to throw it away. But it didn't stop me from taking pictures. However, I didn't have the money for developing all the pictures, so for my birthday and Christmas my mom would give me "coupons" where she would develop them for me. That was the only one I had for years. Then when I entered high school, my mom gave me $300 for back to school clothes and dropped me off at the mall. I took that money, walked into the camera shop and bought my first slr camera. When my mom came back, I told her that I would just wear my old clothes. She saw how happy i was and wasn't even mad. I used that camera all the time and when Meg and I started dating, I would make her model for me and in turn I would have to model for her. That was when I fell in love with black and white photography, there is something about it that seems timeless.
Meg majored in graphic design in college, with an emphasis in photography, got a Canon rebel dslr and decided after her first week that she was going to open her own photography business. ​She was so excited and began asking all of her family and friends if she could take their picture. For weeks she showed me other photographers websites and told me I should do it with her. She saved me all her lecture notes from her classes and pushed me to learn Photoshop. I never knew that photography could be a career, and I felt intimidated by all of the extremely talented photographers out there. Comforted by how sure Meg was that this was the right path for us, I began going on the shoots with her. We began to teach each other and compete a little bit for the best picture. It was then that we realized that taking pictures was only 10% of what running a photography business is all about and expanded our knowledge of what it takes to run a business in the digital age. Then in 2009, we decided to open up Forte Fotos. So we got 4 credit cards and went shopping! $15,000 later, we had everything we would need to open up our doors and we have never looked back.​

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