I am completely tickled that you are actually reading this, or at least reading the blog.  And you actually want to know more about me.  Wow!  Is it a slow day on the internet or is your day job super boring too?  Regardless, I’m glad you are here.

I am in my early 30′s, and it feels weird to be this old, much less type that out.  I live in a suburb of Metro-Detroit called Grosse Pointe, which is somewhat well known for having a lot expensive houses and snobby, affluent, white people with Old Money.  I do not fit in that demographic at all.  Well I’m white…but the similarities stop there.  I live in a modest, normal-sized house five streets from Detroit.  I get off the freeway to go home and see burned out buildings and people who have no business owning dogs walking pit bulls on chains.  And I also live 2 blocks away from bonafide mansions owned by the aforementioned Old Money and local celebrities.  If it sounds odd, it is.

I was one of those annoying types in school that always got straight-As and never really had to try.  The world was supposed to be my oyster once I got to college.  Instead I felt utterly overwhelmed because I wanted to major in about ten things at once.  Every time I picked one subject, the part of my brain that was being ignored would get mad.  So I’d spend one year taking a lot of math and science, the next taking design and art history and photography.

This is a good way to waste a full academic scholarship, get more credits than most post-grads and leave school burnt out after five years with no degree.  My parents are so proud.  In addition to being over educated, I’m also totally unemployable for any job that pays decently.

So I’ve kind of coasted from one unsatisfying job to another, something I think most people can relate to.  Then in 2007, my best friend from college asked if I wanted to photograph his sister’s wedding. Photography had always been something I was interested in since high school.  But at the time, I wasn’t really doing much photography.  All my film gear had been stolen while I was at school, and I hadn’t replaced it.  I had a semi-decent point-and-shoot camera.  I said yes anyway.

Two weeks before the wedding, I bought a Canon 40D, and photographed the wedding with the 50 1.8 lens I had purchased years prior.  And something kinda woke up in me and the photography bug bit me again hard.  If I was perfectly honest with myself, it was always the vocation most appealing to me.  It’s technical enough to appease the side of my brain that likes numbers and precision, and creative enough to keep the other half of my brain happy.  I was just afraid, because it’s a really hard business to survive at.

Around this time, I also met Andy, who I met because of a Vespa (long story).  He was also into photography.  He photographed that first wedding with me, and moved in a few months after we met.  And that following year we officially started a wedding photography business.

I still have an unsatisfying day job, but the business is growing, and hopefully soon, I’ll be able to take pictures full time.

Other than that, I’m a huge animal lover, with a dog, Abby, and three cats.  I am trying to finally decorate my house after having spent the first few years living there replacing mechanical stuff.  I hate mac computers but love my ipad and iphone.  I have recently become obsessed with expensive handbags and I’m far too interested in make-up considering how infrequently I wear it.  I can find an excuse to buy any piece of photographic gear, no matter how impractical.  (Andy shares this affliction, which is one of the reasons our business didn’t make a profit until this year.)  Back when I had free time, I enjoyed reading and knitting.  I am an unrepentant nerd.