About me...

A story about me as a photographer must start with this photo of my beloved kitty, Buddy. I fell in love with photography in a darkroom at the University of Florida in 1996 as I watched this print slowly appear in the developing tray. My parents had just given me a Pentax K100 (a beginner's SLR camera), and I took it everywhere as I learned the art of manual photography. One evening as Buddy sat on a stool keeping me company while I washed dishes, I paused to snap this photo on one of my first rolls of film. I loved everything about the darkroom: the quiet calm, the slow creativity, the magical moment my photos materialized on paper.  

 

Photography remained an outlet for my artistic side while I pursued a career as a marine biologist in the Pacific Northwest and later, when I became a full-time mom, always with a camera in-hand. Then one beautiful day while taking pictures of my boys on the beach in front of the incredible backdrop of Mt. Baker, I realized I had reached a turning point in my passion and dedication to photography. As I watched other families playing around me, I dreamed of photographing them as well. Photography shapes the way I observe the world—always noticing perfect light, split-second moments and fleeting expressions on the faces of people as they go about their lives. 

 

My goal is to continue to grow and improve not just as a photographer but also an artist. For me, fine art photography fulfills a need to capture in a single photo the beauty that I see and feel in nature: the colors, the light, and the movement. Our eyes don’t experience the world as frozen, stale microseconds; we look around and try to take it all in as time continues to flow. With this awareness, I try to be creative in the ways that I use my camera, constantly experimenting and challenging myself to create art in-camera rather than relying on photo editing software.

When my clients look back on my photos, I hope they trigger memories of genuine emotions and personalities, and they become family keepsakes for years-to-come.