A camera is the only tool we have to freeze time. I can’t tell you how many times I look back at the pictures I have taken of my kids and an old memory, that I had long forgotten, is sparked again. The way their little curls looked when they first got out of the bath...that mistrigius look in my older daughter’s eye when I caught her hiding her 14 month old sister under a large black cloth storage bin. And then the follow up picture of them both laughing hysterically when they realized they had been caught. Or best yet...those pictures of my husband with our daughters, reading a book in a quiet corner of the room...none of them looking up to see that I was snapping pictures of them. The connection of the three of them...captured. These connections; these moments; these emotions; are what I long to capture.

 

I remember being back in middle school annoying my friends because I was always snapping pictures of them. It may have been with a disposable film camera at the time; but I always carried one with me. Now 25 years later, I have those same friends asking to see those pictures (I knew they would thank me someday =) ). And while those pictures were just snapshots; they represented so much of who we were at that moment in time; the connections we had built. As I grew, so did my love for photography. I would take tons of pictures of flowers...of buildings...of overall landscapes. I shared this love of photography with my dad. From the time I graduated college; up until I had my own kids, my dad and I would be out almost every weekend taking pictures and discovering new places. On family vacations; my dad and I would get up with the sun so we could get the perfect lighting for our pictures of flowers or capture the sandpipers playing “Chicken” with the ocean to grab their breakfast among the sand. Photography has given me such a gift. It has given me a love of nature...it has given me such valuable time with my dad; and it’s given me the chance to be a storyteller. I learned my camera and photography basics thru classes but mostly trial and error. I got out almost every weekend and played; made mistakes; and fell in love with my camera and what I could create.

 

I started having friends; co-workers, clients ask me to take pictures of their family because they had seen some of the pictures I had taken of my older daughter as well as some of the landscapes and macro flower shots I had taken. I was working in the hotel business and loving it; I hadn’t thought about doing photography professionally. I had my second daughter and left the hotel industry to spend more time at home. During that time...I realized my love for photography was much more than a hobby. It was my passion.

 

And so here I am! I’ve now told you MY story… What’s YOUR story? I can’t wait to help you tell it and freeze your moment in time.