The Story
The Start
I wasn't the girl with the camera.
Hard to believe, but it's true.
I fell in love with photography as an art form when I was a young adult, long before I ever learned how to make those photographs myself. It wasn't until I had children of my own that I felt the need to pick up a camera and really learn to use it.
And when I did, it changed the way I saw the world. My children were growing. Time was flying by. And photography became my way of slowing it down, even for a moment.
As I began photographing more children, I discovered how much I loved all the different ages and stages. From the sweet, chubby baby to the fast-moving, moody toddler. The eager-to-please eight-year-old and the suddenly self-conscious tween. The high school senior who seems to be changing by the minute. The twenty-something who is grown but still growing into themselves.
Happy, serious, goofy, shy, awkward, wild, beautiful. There is something worth noticing at every stage. Something that won't be there forever.
The Style
My images are not overly posed, and I don’t use a lot of props.
I like to think they are the sweet spot between a lifestyle photo and a portrait.
I love black and white and the way it simplifies everything. I also love the simple beauty of a child’s face—the shape, expression, shadow and light. Whether it’s a big laugh, a serious look or a subtle smile... to me the face always tells a story.
I have zero interest in a “say cheese” smile. But a pouty lip, a belly laugh, a timid smile? That is my happy place.
One of the best compliments I can get is when a mom says something like, “He’s made that face since he was a baby. I can’t believe you captured that.” When parents cry happy tears, I feel like I have done my job well.
After all these years, it still means something to me when someone trusts me to make a portrait of someone they love.
Because I know what happens next.
They grow.
And eventually the photograph becomes more than something beautiful we made that afternoon. It becomes a record of a person at a particular moment in their life…the face, the expression, the little things you thought you'd never forget.