About me, that is the question. How hard is it to write about yourself? Especially to people that you've never met. I am a wife, a mother, an individual with passions. Many ask how I got into photography. Over the years I have always taken an enormous amount of pictures. Starting with my son and working into our everyday lives.
I was sitting at the beach with a friend one afternoon, staring at the water and the waves. How they moved in and out of the sand, the circular impressions the water left throughout. What I saw wasn't just water and sand. I saw beauty; I saw patterns; I saw color and light. The sunset intrigued me; how the sun reflected in the water and how the wooden piles gave off a reflection. All of the natural surroundings around us that gave off so much beauty that you would not typically perceive. So, it began.
I started photographing nature and landscapes. I moved on to animals. How could you not want to play with a dog all day? I realized that I really enjoyed natural portraits. I loved being able to capture moments where people were candid and unposed. When I was photographing my first practice portrait, I remember the model was posing perfectly, yet there was not one posed photograph that I liked. It was all the shots in between that I had taken when she wasn't looking that spoke to me. The naturalness, the real smiles, her personality. I was hooked! I knew then that I wanted to venture into portrait photography. I wanted to create my vision, not the posed portraits but the portrait that captured the essence of the person in it.
I was asked to photograph a wedding in a journalistic and candid way by a personal friend. I loved every single second of it - I loved being able to capture the moments of her day, being able to give her the pictures that I wish I had at my wedding. The images that recorded their joy, tears, and all of the real moments that created that special day.
I can truly say that the clients I have worked with have been phenomenal. I am grateful that they chose me for the such important moments of their lives and the blessings have been plentiful.
As a family we have received so many blessings and feel it's important to be active and give back to the amazing community we live in. Over the past ten years we have held fundraisers and contributed for the Boces Program for Special Needs Children, Kent Animal Shelter, Brookhaven Animal Shelter, Forgotten Friends of Long Island Animal Rescue, Tufftails Animal Rescue, Brookhaven Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Madonna Heights and numerous others.
It's only natural that I want to pay it forward for the many gifts photography have given to me. I am a volunteer photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, The Tiny Footprints Project, Kent Animal Shelter and numerous other organizations. You can find more information on some of these organizations by clicking on the links below:
https://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org
http://www.thetinyfootprintsproject.org