A little about me

01.

I’m Terry Egan, but call me TJ

I was born and raised in Northwest Illinois, but my wife Jen and I rise to put our toes in the sand, seeking out every beach sunrise and sunset that we can. We call the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area home. We are empty nesters with four adult kids spread out from the U.K., to Denver, to California. We are a family of artists, Jen owning a graphic design firm called Allspice Studios, and a daughter who has been a character designer for DreamWorks Animation Studios, Warner Brothers, and Disney, to name a few. We have yet another daughter in the US Airforce who inspires other Airmen through her large-scale mural art. Our third daughter lives in Denver where she often escapes to the mountains to refresh and renew.

02.

Relationship with nature

I've had a lifelong affinity to water. I swam age group, high school, D-1 college, and have coached national champions in the disability arena. I've swam open-water races around the country, once swimming from Alcatraz Island back to San Francisco. I've lived in rustic riverfront cabins, and now just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is my photographic playground. Even my Grandmother's maiden name was Flood. Perhaps, most profound for me is the meaning of water in baptism. You will find water as a powerful and reoccurring theme in my images.

03.

Photography experience

My Dad bought me a dark room and camera at age 13, and by 15 I had made the high school yearbook team. I helped work my way through college as a freelance photographer. I was mentored by a famous photographer named Everett Kroger who was the private photographer for Ray Kroc, the late owner of the McDonalds Corporation. Everett taught me the principles of light, the use of color, reflection, and how to compose a photograph that is pleasing to the eye and tells a story. In my early thirties, one of my photos made Time Magazine's "Time for Kids" and McGraw-Hill's elementary school textbooks across the nation. I often hear that "you have the eye", meaning having a gift for seeing a composition, sometimes before it happens.

04.

Faith & photography

Genesis 1:27 says, "So God Created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." While we as humans have fallen short through our own sins, by his grace, and through our faith in Him, He redeems us. Photography images attempt to replicate his creation to the best of our abilities. No photo is "picture perfect", but hopefully you will see the awesome hand of God as captured in His sunrises, sunsets, His wildlife, and yes, the hand of God in portraits of you.