I learned Lightroom because my band couldn’t afford a photographer.

Someone had to edit our press shots, nobody else volunteered, and I opened Lightroom for the first time out of pure necessity. I’d studied music business in college in Nashville — photography wasn’t even on my radar. But something clicked that day. Turns out I like editing photos even more than I liked playing bass, which is saying a lot.

I’m Alex, 33, based in Nashville. I grew up in Atlanta and fell into photo editing completely sideways. I think that’s actually why my tutorials connect with people — I remember what it’s like to stare at a panel full of sliders and have no idea what any of them do. I explain things the way I wish someone had explained them to me. No jargon, no gatekeeping, just clear steps.

I once spent an entire weekend building a preset pack that I ended up giving away for free. It got 50,000 downloads, which was wild. My cat ISO keeps me company while I edit — she got her name because she knocked my camera off a shelf and the ISO was set to 12800. True story. I edit while listening to vinyl records, I have strong opinions about the Lightroom vs Capture One debate, and I name all my presets after songs.

I turned down a corporate photography job to keep writing tutorials, because I realized teaching is where my heart is. My friend Dave Barker over at Photoshop Monkey and I give each other a hard time constantly — he’s a Photoshop diehard, I’m a Lightroom person, and we’ve been arguing about it online for years. Neither of us is going to back down. I’m in a long-term relationship with someone who tolerates the constant sound of vinyl and shutter clicks from the other room, and I live in a city that keeps me creatively inspired every day.

If you want to get better at Lightroom, photo editing, or just making your images look the way you imagined them, stick around.

Want to get in touch? Drop me a line at alex@pixelbubble.com.