About Me

I tried music first. I studied clarinet for over three years. I quit only because I couldn't get the hang of reading music, I survived three years by playing by ear. My music teacher never noticed this. As an adult, musician friends of mine told me that this teacher made a grave error. Apparently musicians who can play by ear are rare and it's a talent that most musicians would "kill for" as a friend once told me. I also sang in the school chorus but as a severely shy child that hobby didn't last into junior high even though my teacher told me that with training I could have "a very nice voice." All through this I do remember starting to be fascinated with cameras.

At the age of ten I started studying classical dance, ballet and jazz. It was my first true love. I really did love to dance. Ballet was my real favorite and for most of my teen years I really thought that I was going to be a professional dancer. My teachers really felt that I could do it but what I couldn't do was come up with money to travel and compete on the level necessary to get to a professional level of dance.

By this time I was already playing with photography. My first camera was one of those disk cameras, the film was this round disk. If you remember them you'll remember that they didn't take the greatest photos but it got me started. I think I started with just snapping shots of things that got my attention. At the time I didn't even realize that photography could be a career.

All through my teen years I continued to dance, for eight years all together, even though I knew that I wouldn't be able to move into a professional career. I was also starting to draw and paint on a serious hobby level. It was in my late teens that I thought I could get into commercial art using my drawing and painting skills, still didn't dawn on my that photography was an option. Somehow I had become the family photographer in this time. Even without training my photos usually came out better than most of the family and from the age of about 14 on I'm rarely in family photos because I was so consistently behind the camera.

College was great, especially on the heels of giving up dance I couldn't go to college and dance too. It was wonderful being with other artists. There were virtually no artistic types in my high school so college was such an eye opener and a real positive experience for me. Here I really fell in love with photography and suddenly realized that it could be a career for me. While I did really well in all of my classes I seemed to have the easiest time with photography and I loved the blend of art and science. I spent hours and hours in the darkroom and absolutely loved it.

By the time I finished my degree the commercial art market busted, it was struggling to cope with the computer revolution. My degree didn't include computer graphics, the field didn't exist in colleges at the time, and I wasn't able to pick up and move to Chicago or New York and honestly I found that I didn't want to move to either of those cities.

Somehow I ended up working in retail, quickly found I had a natural aptitude for business. I returned to college to get a degree in business management. It helped me to become a manager and I worked in retail for over ten years.

During this time I was painting, I exhibited a few paintings in local shows. While I won awards for the work I realized there was really no chance of ever making a living as a painter. And I fell back again to the one thing that I been with me for a very long time, photography. My first attempts were stilted and clumsy but I did exhibit a few photos in those early years. For about two years while getting my business degree I worked at a local fashion magazine as an assisting photographer and intern. It was a great opportunity since I was able to do photography and use my commercial art skills in magazine layout.

Unfortunately real life gets in the way and I had bills to pay and things to take care of. While I always continued my photography years went by without exhibiting any work and my job as a manager took up so much of my time that photography had to take a back seat. 

In 2001 I married my wonderful husband, his appreciation for my abilities has been a driving force behind me returning to my art. First I focused on getting back into exhibiting my work on an international level. It took some time to get back into the grove, so to speak, but last year I had over twelve acceptances into international shows.

In early 2004 after having spent a year designing our personal home page I got the crazy idea to start my own web business. I know now that I really didn't know exactly what I was getting into but it was the best decision I ever made. I knew that I would sell my photos as stock and that I would design and maintain my own site. For the first time in my life was I using all of my skills and talents.

Words can't express how much I enjoy doing this work. I love doing all aspects of this job from writing articles to helping other photographers, answering questions on my forum, and even working everyday to find new and interesting things to add to my site. I heard once, and I don't know who said it, find something you love to do and find a way to make a living at it. That's the best advice I've every heard.

Right now she's in my office with me playing on her mat next to my desk. I'm hoping that as she grows she will learn photography and web design right along side me. I suspect that she'll understand code before she can speak. I look forward to sharing my love of photography with my daughter and I look forward to continuing to share my photography experience with you.

All my best,