I took my first architectural photo of a train station in Waverly Iowa at the age of 8. It was an awful photo. But I still have it and I still remember that train station.

I've been in love with the aesthetics of architecture for as long as I can remember..

But photographing it as a business came much later in life.

I opened Lackner Photography in 2011, and for most of the years since, what paid for it was property work — listings, interiors, aerials. That trade taught me things I still use on every job: how to feel the flow of a space, how a room behaves at different hours, how to work quickly without cutting corners, and how to be easy to have on a site.

That brings us to now — architecture, interiors, and aerial work for the people who design and build across southern Wisconsin. I'm also extending it backward into the build itself, documenting projects while they're going up rather than only after, because the year before the ribbon cutting is the part nobody photographs and everybody later wishes they had.

Thirty five year in and I'd still rather know a building for a year than an afternoon.