Hello!

My name is Ashton, and I am an artist!

I’m 24 and currently live in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. The reason I chose the name “ashbytheseaside” is because I am absolutely addicted to living on the West Coast. There are many beaches, lakes, and lagoons right here in my backyard.

From a young age, I always enjoyed photography. I have fond memories of my dad walking around with our bulky family camcorder as a kid, capturing memories, and creating special moments! We eventually evolved into a small digital camera family, and I loved looking at the memories we were able to print out and gift to others. I got my first digital camera for my 10th birthday and loved taking it around with me everywhere to capture memories and special moments. I also enjoyed using this camera to make stop-motion videos for school projects.

Just like other Zillennials, I eventually upgraded to a smartphone, and from then on out, my addiction to photography became further solidified. The most important upgrade for me year after year in a phone was the camera, I loved messing around with manual settings and learning how to make photos as well as capture important moments (yes, those are two very different things). Around this time I also started to mess around with video as I taught myself how to make projects for school, and eventually, projects simply for my own enjoyment.

I launched my photography instagram page in 2018 as a way for me to share the photos and video I enjoyed taking and wanted to share with others who would also appreciate them. I started off sharing photos from my travels, and ended off with random photos I wanted to take during the pandemic years. Eventually, in 2022, I finally managed to save up enough to buy into a mirrorless camera system, and because I already knew the basics of photography, composition, and editing, I quickly started off working on professional and semi-professional projects. During this time, I was studying as a student and in 2024, I made the decision to leave my field of study and start in the workforce. I am currently working as an Audio Visual Technician/Installer at a local company and am still passionate about picking up photography projects when I can. I figured that now that my schedule is a bit more normalized, I can use my free-time to invest more into my artistic passions and continue to grow in my love and skill in both photography and video.