I didn't even buy my first DSLR (a canon T3i in case it matters) until my late 20's. And when I did get it, it stayed in my coat closet and was really only used a few times a year, always on Auto, and I had absolutely no clue how to use it any other way.

 

I know. Not very inspiring, is it? I'm getting there, I promise.....

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As life seems to have the tendency to do, it tossed me some curveballs and I found myself in the midst of a divorce with two small children, and then almost immediately following that, I lost my job. The loss of my job then resulted in the loss of everything else.... and, well.... you get the picture.  I suddenly became an almost 30 something divorced and unemployed mother living in my parents basement surrounded by wood paneling with nothing to show for myself than two kids and a bunch of student loans.

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As you can imagine, I was unmoored and reaching for a creative outlet because vodka was not considered a healthy pastime (heed my cautionary tale). The whole American Dream thing hadn’t worked out as I had hoped, and I was at one of those super-cliché life crossroads. Amid the new chaos of my life, I needed to find something that would bring me joy other than drinking wine and yelling “He’s pretty but not worth it!” while watching episodes of The Bachelor.

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Try yoga, they said. Laughable. I’m LOUD, I can’t ever shut up, and I giggled when people farted.

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Namaste, bitches.

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Meditation? That’s what people with kids call SLEEP.

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 The camera came into the picture as simply something I

wanted to learn. It kept me busy as I got used to a new 

co-parenting schedule and it introduced me to

other female photographers at every level who became my

inspiration as well as my friends. It took me places I wouldn't

have gone otherwise, and I'm gonna get cliché for a sec....

but it was truly a beacon of light when I was in the dark.

 

I know....that was cheesy. sorry. 

 

Long story short - I'm just a regular gal that has fallen in love with storytelling through a lens during a shitty time of my life, and I never imagined that I would find a catalyst in a box that held a dusty Canon Rebel.

But from the moment that I started taking photos, I knew that this was the thing I was meant to do.

 

Photography is what brought me home; its what healed me.

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I’m a straight-up and straightforward kinda gal, and I believe in heartfelt talks between friends on a front porch, and the power of a hug when someone is suffering. I believe there is beauty in every story and that every story is beautiful.

 

And by telling your story...the story of your family, or your wedding day.. I’ve found what’s true for me, that being a storyteller matters to me. And I'm about to be cliché yet again, and its the cliche-ist of all cliche’s,

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it’s truly what I was meant to do.