After living in Manhattan and working in finance for nearly 20 years, Preston became a journalist, writing an opinion column and articles for a local Pennsylvania newspaper. The job morphed into a passion, and he created MilfordNow, an online, hyper-local news site garnering state-wide attention. The platform was sold to Straus News in 2016.

After working on special projects at Straus, Preston became a wire-service photojournalist. His images have appeared in Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone and many others. He has also freelanced for the New York Times, and Delaware Currents.