Meet Your Photographer

Yes, your photographer.

Because if you hire me to take pictures of you, your family, or your event, I am working for you. I also hope that you would come back to me for future photographic needs, so that we can develop a personal and professional relationship. That's how good pictures are made. The more people work together, the better they work together to achieve the best possible results.

I didn't want this to be just another website with pictures and price tags, so I thought I'd give a little background on what pushes my desire to take pictures and why I love photography so much. I also think it's important for clients to get an idea of who I am and what I'm like, because it's important for personalities to mesh.

Photography, to me, isn't just about taking pictures to sell or hang on the wall. It's about love, light and life, and nature and beauty. From the time I was born, I was always out in the wilderness; fishing, hiking, camping, digging in the dirt, even panning for gold with my father. Even after my parents divorced, I spent a lot of time outdoors. My mom and I hiked, and when I went to visit my dad, we camped, fished, and panned for gold. When I wasn't outside, I was inside, longing to be outside. I drew pictures of mountains and hilltops and rivers and lakes. I drew the sun and moon, clouds, birds, and pine trees. All my life I have felt a deep connection to nature.

Because I was never very good at drawing or painting, and because it never looked like the beautiful places I had gone to, I decided that the best way to take nature home with me would be to take pictures of it. Pictures seemed to best represent what I loved most about the wilderness. So, at the age of 10, I acquired my first camera and started taking pictures when my mom and I hiked. The rest, as they say, is history.

Beginning

Ahh, the 70s. This is me as a baby, in about 1975. I was born in 1974 in Bellingham, Washington. My parents and I lived in Sumas, right on the Canadian border in northwest Washington. I don't remember much about that time, except that my dad drove a logging truck.

Growing

This is me, outside picking flowers on one of those rare sunny days in the Pacific Northwest. We probably still lived in Sumas at the time. Not a care in the world at this age. Just play. And flowers.

When I was about three or four we lived in the campground in Fall City, WA while our house was being built in North Bend. My mom and dad divorced when I was about six, then my mom and I moved to Issaquah, from there to Cle Elum, to Sacramento, CA for six months, and then to Boise, ID. We did a lot of moving around when I was young. Some good years, some not so good years. I was nine years old when we moved to Boise. I did most of my growing up there, but I still consider everything west of the Cascades home.

Transitioning

I think I was about 10 years old here, because I had (mostly) grown out of my awkward stage (buck teeth), but hadn't yet cut my hair short. This was on one of our hikes in Idaho. This was also when I started taking pictures. I had earned enough privileges at school to get to choose a prize from a box. I chose the old camera. From that point on, I took it hiking with me whenever my mom and I went. That was around 1986.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long. Once I turned about 13, my friends and boys took priority over anything else. Then life happened. It wasn't until I was about 27 that I picked a camera up again for nature purposes and hit the trails. That was in spring of 2002, the first year after my ex-husband and I separated. Taking up an old childhood hobby at the same time as going through a divorce was no coincidence.

Learning

The most important learning process in one's life: children. Mine are definitely no exception. I spent a lot of years being a single parent, and met my ex-husband while I was pregnant with a baby I gave up for adoption in 1997. We later got married and had our son, my younger one. These are my two boys. Raising them has been quite challenging (grossly understated for simplicity's sake), but they're both very sweet and incredibly intelligent.

My ex and I moved to Florida and we were there for 18 months before our relationship ended. From there I took the boys and moved back to Boise, living there for a total of 23 years. Then in June of 2007, we packed up and moved to Portland. The time I spent in Boise before moving to Portland was probably the most pivotal point in my life. I learned more about life in that five years than I'd learned the other 25 that I'd been alive. I took the time to just work, spend with my kids and outdoors taking pictures, and figuring out who I was and what I wanted out of life.