Going into college, I was introduced to the sport of rowing out of nowhere. If I had told myself years back before being a freshman in college that I would end up being an engineering student, with already little sleep, and that I would have to start waking up every day at 5:30 am to head to practice at 6:00 and be done at 8:00-9:00, then go straight to my lectures afterwards, 6 times a week, I would not have believed myself at all. However, I guess anything is possible if the work is put in.

Rowing is a sport that cultivates discipline in individuals, motivates them to achieve goals in daily life, and promotes a healthy and active lifestyle. The team I joined at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) helped me form lasting connections with people and develop friendships that have meant a great deal to me both on and off the water. The sport is dependent on trust in your teammates, eight guys in a boat, one coxswain in the stern, all fighting through the long-lasting pain to be the first ones to cross the end of the 2k buoy. The same principle applies to real life, particularly when it comes to college projects, schoolwork, labs, and later jobs in the workforce, where teamwork and collaboration are often required.

During my sophomore and varsity year of Rowing, I was elected as the social media manager for our team after my teammates noticed some of the photography I had done for the team just for fun in my freshman year. The more posts and video content that I created, the more views, followers, and reach we got on our Instagram page. Even other collaborators began reaching out and wanting to work together, helping our team and the Rowing community reach an even larger audience. One of those collaborators was TRC (The Rowing Channel), which hired me for a few regattas hosted at Newport Bay for the California Challenge Cup, and at San Diego for the San Diego Crew Classic. Throughout those two events, I had a great time working with the film crew, as I learned more from them on how to handle various equipment, the editing processes, and how the streaming setup works as a whole. All the employees on the channel are former rowers who competed before and decided to stay in the rowing community by joining and creating their own team, which streams the regattas. With all that new eye-opening knowledge, more and more content was produced for our UCI rowing team, and I ended up getting re-elected as our social media manager for the second straight year, going into my 3rd year of Rowing.

It is remarkable to think that a random encounter during my freshman year with the varsity rowers led to my inclusion on a varsity college rowing roster and helped me become more involved in the film and photography industry, which has translated to my work and profile here. I am beyond thankful to this community and the numerous opportunities it has provided me throughout my college years. This page will continue to show some of my best work in Rowing Sports Photography. Hope you enjoy!