My name is Jarrod. I'm a photographer from Brownwood TX. I don't like snakes and try to avoid wearing shoes. I don't really like talking about myself. And the template for this page was like a freakin' novel. I shot landscapes for years previously in and around Brown County. I loved to go down back roads and find places I had never seen and take pictures.

That all ended over a year ago. It was a summer day and I was in my red truck, driving down a back road. I had Dr. Pepper from Sonic and my Canon PowerShot SX20IS 12.1MP digital camera and I saw it. The creepiest house I have ever seen. It was like a condensed version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. Behind a cattle fence with thick bars was a wide clay driveway and it was about 40 yards from the road. I could see it and I could see this thunderhead behind it bellowing into the sky. Streaks of electricity were shooting through the giant thunderhead and drops of rain were starting to appear on my windshield. I knew I had to hurry.

I pulled onto the shoulder of the road, grabbed my Canon camera, sipped my Dr. Pepper and ran to the house. I held onto the camera and stepped onto the first bar of the fence. Drops of water started to hit my face and I knew I had to hurry before my lens would be covered with water. I climbed to the second bar and thunder struck. This was going to be awesome. I just knew it. If there was a prize for finding the coolest creepy house in three counties, taking a picture of it and showing it to your friends. I was going to win that prize. I climbed to the third bar of the fence and my flip flop slipped.

My stomach hit the top of the fence and I hung there. The wind knocked out of me and the camera knocked out of my hand. 'This is the punishment for trying to achieve greatness.' I thought. Because while in pain I get philosophical. As my breath came back to me I realized I didn't have my camera. I looked at the tan clay dirt on the far side of the fence. Water drops had started to speckle it and I saw my camera. Six inches on the wrong side of a curled up, shaking rattlesnake.

I fell back, scrambled to my feet and rain swarmed me. By the time I made it to the cab of my truck I was soaked. Sipping Dr. Pepper from Sonic, waiting for the snake to leave as my camera was soaked to the circuits in water. I never got a picture of that house. That camera never worked again. And after that I started working with models exclusively. I stopped using Canon cameras and I wish I could say I gave up Dr. Pepper too. But that only lasted six months.


That was how my adventure started and is still going strong. I love taking pictures and meeting and working with models and touching the photos up myself. And getting them back to the model within a day at the latest.

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