MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – Shawn has been into cars since he was born but it wasn’t until his mother bought a 35mm Canon Rebel in the early-’80s that he caught the photography bug. Once the old film camera wore itself out, it was banished to the attic and he wouldn’t pick up another camera until he was married. Learning the fundamentals early helped him when it came time to make the move to a DSLR for the newlyweds first vacation, or should we say photography excursion, as he took over 2,000 pictures!
You could say he was hooked again. And, of course, he immediately started turning the camera to his favorite subjects at the time: cars, soccer, and travel. With time on the field long-past, Shawn turned his love of photography and cars into a job taking the position running the day-to-day operations of Xceleration Media. There he was responsible for managing the print and digital operations of its five enthusiast-driven magazines. It wasn’t long until the startup was sold to the digital-only Power Automedia who looked to expand its offerings and he went along to manage the operation of the print titles.
Unfortunately, the print publications never came to fruition, but Shawn stayed with the company as editorial director over seven of its 12 digital titles. He was able to attend some of the biggest car events across the country while managing to grow the readership of each of the titles. Along the way, he upgraded his gear to a full-frame Nikon D750 with some great glass to go along with it. He often attended shows on his own time and gave the photos to the editors he worked with to post on their sites.
After being laid-off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shawn took the opportunity to launch the Auto Enthusiast Network where he hopes to build a network of like-minded photographers who have a passion for shooting enthusiast cars but just don’t have the time to devote to keeping up a website. Many photographers (even professional ones) have other full-time jobs or don’t know how to post to a website. AEN will give them a landing spot to show off their talents.
A lot of the large media companies require a turn-key article to go along with the photos. It takes a lot of time to write a high-quality article, not to mention laying it out on a website, and some photographers just don’t have that arrow in their quiver. That is where AEN comes in — it allows photographers to do what they do best and the rest can be left to someone else so they can get back to doing what they love. In the meantime, Shawn will be in the trenches shooting cars and building up the network!