About me
I am a world traveler and adventure seeker. My twenties were spent fulfilling my wanderlust…swimming with dolphins, spending the night in the Sahara Desert, relaxing in the Blue Lagoon, exploring the great pyramids, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and I even once showered with a spider the size of my hand! During my travels I saw a great many interesting things and luckily my camera was always close at hand. It was during these adventures that I discovered my passion for documenting the natural beauty and curious happenings around me.
I still travel as much as possible, but now my home base is Seattle. Here I have found new forms of natural beauty. A fleeting intimate moment between bride and groom just after their ceremony, or an unexpected smile from a dreaming newborn. These are the moments I live for…the moments that make my heart beat faster, my camera click, and what you will treasure for many years afterwards.
About my style
To me photography is not a list of forced poses and formality. It’s about having fun together, sharing laughs, and letting the special moments happen organically. This makes for photography that is truly a reflection of who you are and what you will want to remember.
I believe that laughter and fun is just the thing to bring out your true, natural self. While, I am more than happy to make a complete fool of myself to get the smiles and laughter flowing, I also know when to respectfully step back and anticipate the tender, emotional moments. That’s just how I roll! 😉
While I’m most often hired for my candid photography and photojournalistic style, I want to explain that magical moments don’t just unfold before me as soon I show up. My job would be a lot easier if that’s how life worked, but it doesn’t. Scenarios have to be “set up” to get things going. This can mean anything from starting brides and grooms out in a lose pose, to encouraging kids to play with props. It all just depends on the situation and the different personalities involved. That’s why my pre-consultations are such an important step to figuring out how the shoot or event will go.
About my philosophy
Finally, if you’ve seen my pricing page, you can probably guess how important I think printed photos are. I grew up treasuring the few printed photos I have of my parents and I together. I have newer family photos, but they are on my computer… somewhere. I never got around to printing them. When I think about all of the personal photos I have that live on my computer, I get a little bit sad because I know that they will never be treasured in quite the same way as those physical prints that I grew up with. It’s actually overwhelming to think about how many of those kinds of photos I have in digital form, but to find and print all of them seems impossible to me now. The few that I did print right away, I have up in my home or in an album. They are the chosen ones!
I have so many people tell me that they have never printed any photos that were professionally taken (by me or other photographers). That always makes me think, well what was the point of hiring a professional then? When I kept hearing this over and over again, I thought that I had to change the way I do things. I started to encourage the purchase of printed photos that families would see daily as art on their walls or in albums, as opposed to digital files that would sit on a computer to gather virtual dust. I don’t even think these printed photos have to be professional, but they should be printed professionally, to last.
Like so many other photographers today, I feel strongly about giving tangible, quality artwork that can be admired daily and passed down through the family. I don’t think anyone will be passing down digital files though.
