The time has come | Maryland Fine Art & Lifestyle Photographer

Hello friends! It's been a while, hasn't it? With the new year came new resolutions and that meant perfect timing for my business changes. I mentioned this late last year - I'm ready to move forward with them and make it known! I'm going to apologize in advance on the wordiness of this post.

These past few months have been about deep thought and going back to my roots, so to speak. My photography changed in 2010. In both good and not so good ways. The good was that I found my style, my true love and passion, what drives me in my work. The bad - I began to lose sight of that at the persistence of others. I only have myself to blame.

The truth of the matter is - I am more an artist than I am photographer. In my mind, a photographer sets out to capture "THE" image people say they want of their family. You know the one - everyone sitting in flattering ways, smiles so genuine, all eyes right at the camera. Hair is perfect, no one's fingers are in their mouth, all faces right at the camera. THE shot. What I've come to realize is, life is not reflected in that moment. When I look back on pictures of my family in 15 years, what will I connect with? My perfect family portrait or the one of my little girl fast asleep with the thumb she no longer sucks in her mouth? Don't get me wrong, I am not saying a desire for THE portrait is wrong. It's not. But it's not me. I want to actually feel the moment in time that I've been blessed enough to be a part of and capture. I've always said nothing can replace the family snapshots. It's because when you look back at your little girl at 4 and see her messy pigtails and cradling her lovie or your 6 year old boy with chocolate cookie crumbs all over his face with big doe eyes that make you wish he were 6 again - you remember how much that moment in time meant to you. That, my friends, is what I want to do. That is what the art of photography is all about to me. And it's because of this I say that if you want to capture THE picture of your family or your child - I am not the person you want to hire. There are many good photographers in this area that will do that for you. But I am no longer that person.

So what does that mean? It means that if you want honest, soulful images of your child/baby/family/etc., I am your girl. My heart longs to capture the very essence of the subjects I have in front of my camera that day.

So this is where I'm at folks. I don't want to be your family photographer. I want to be the person you hire because you want images that are ART. I realize my passion is not shared by everyone, and that's ok. I want you to hire me because you want me to create artwork of your family, images that stir up feelings. If this is something you'd like - let's talk. I would love to capture your family the way *I* see them.

The best way to go about this is to give you examples, both with words and visually, of what my work is about and what you can expect from me if you hire me. But I feel this would be better done broken up into different posts, as there are a handful of things I want to talk about. And this post is terribly long already, I don't want to bore you. :) But, I cannot post without at least one image.

My youngest, celebrating her 5th birthday. Our pit bull puppy Ms. Maya shares a birthday with her, and turned 1 on the same day. Happy birthday to my girls!

And a cupcake study I did - so much fun!


I'll be back tomorrow for post #1 with examples of where my work is going from here.