Becoming a professional photographer was never my dream. Pragmatic and nerdy, I never considered myself an artist, though my mother swears I was always talented in drawing. I knew I loved photography when I started shooting with my first little DSLR and editing the pictures on my laptop from college with one of the first versions of Photoshop. But I have always identified as more of a business person than an artist. To a fault. Like, I get excited about the most mundane business tasks and people think it’s weird.

Never would I have thought Family Photography would take me where it has, and that I would get the distinct privilege of helping other photographers pursue their dreams.

Most photographers identify as artists. Creatives.  And it's very common for 'creative' personality types to struggle with the business side of things.  So if that's you, you are not alone!  If you look around, you'll see that lot of photography business education is geared toward the wedding industry, which is great… for wedding photographers. But some of us just love photographing families.  Specializing in serving families is just different than building a wedding-industry business.

In 2018, our neighborhood farm (and gorgeous photography spot) asked me if I’d like to teach a family photography workshop for other professional photographers who shoot there, as part of a teaching series they were hosting. I had only taught one other person anything related to photography, so I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but I knew that if I could share some wisdom about all this business stuff that I had learned the hard way, it could really help someone just starting out.

As much as I enjoy the art stuff, the more I started asking around and developing the curriculum for my first workshop, the more I realized that family photographers don’t have a ton of resources out there to help them with the backend of business. Resources on things like Pricing. Staying organized. File management. Communication. Workflows and systems. Growth Strategy. Resources we all desperately need when we are trying to earn money as a photographic artist who doesn’t want to get into weddings.

So I made some tools from scratch. And the rest is history!

I have a passion for encouraging family photographers to ramp up their professionalism and put strategies and tactics in place to ensure that their businesses will not only be something they can grow at their own pace in an organized way, but also that pays them for their time and talent!  

And I would absolutely love to help you too!

A few fun facts about me…

• I met my husband as part of a used-car sale set up.

• My first job was teaching piano lessons.

• I have always loved kids and I don’t mind when other peoples’ kids throw tantrums.

• My desk is messy. Actually, most of my house is usually messy. With four children and a full-time business, I’m pretty pumped when there’s just enough space on the kitchen island for me to make dinner.

• I played in a rock band for ten years after college.

• Like my father, I hate paying for things that I don’t need.

• Like my mother, I cry every time someone talks about birth.

• If you’re into these sorts of things: I’m an Enneagram 1w2 // ISTJ // Double Earth // Spiritual Gift: Administration. If you have no clue what I just said, disregard as these assessments have nothing to do with why you’re here!

• I actually dropped out of Photography 101 in college, when I was pursuing a degree in Media Production and a minor in Graphic Arts (including four semesters of Photoshop).  From there (without learning how to load film into a camera), I started a career in marketing communications for a government contractor in Scottsdale. 

• My first paid portrait session was for a high school classmate and I charged $40.

• Excel is my favorite computer program (sorry, Lightroom).

• I can fall asleep anywhere, at any time. But I try not to.