Flowers and Candy | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

My flower prints have found a new home! They can now be found at Flowers and Candy right in the old port of Portland. A little about the shop: “Objects of Desire & Essentials of Utility. Locally made Candy, Leather Bags, Hats, Clothing, and Accessories. Made in Maine to go everywhere.”

Eden, the owner, is lovely and has curated a lovely selection of items and edibles. Go check out her little shop!

Fita Preta Winery | Portugal | Portland, Maine Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

We visited the Fita Preta Winery on a sunny afternoon in Portugal. I was a little nervous to be wine tasting with a toddler in tow, but they were unfazed by this (honestly most of Portugal was unfazed when we told them we were bringing a child). We spent the afternoon sipping on wine, learning about their processes, getting a tour of their facility and walking among some ruins they have on their property. It was a lovely experience and we can’t wait to go back one day.

Petalage Florals | CERAMICA CO | Skye's Artisan Bakes | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle photographer

I got to spend the afternoon with some magical ladies who all make different things. Michelle from Petalage, Hannah from Ceramica Co., and Mackenzie from Skye’s Artisan Bakes.

The three girls are all friends and they invited me in to capture the work they create. I had a lot of fun talking and getting lost in my head while creating some dreamy images.

Nomadic Goat | Portland, Maine Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Fun little test shoot morning at Nomadic Goat in Portland, Maine.

The Breathing Room | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

I loved working for The Breathing Room on some of their studio photos last summer.

I’m looking forward to making some more magic with them over the next few weeks.

For New Hampshire’s Ski-Home Buyers, The Icier The Better | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Back in 2019 I had the opportunity to travel to NH and take some photos for The Wall Street Journal. I had a lot of fun spending time in this beautiful house in the mountains.

Spring Tech Wallpaper | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Cherry Blossoms | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Cherry Blossoms | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

I create LOTS of still life photos, always trying to emulate the great Dutch Masters and I decided that every season I’m going to make one of my still life photos available for free download to be used as wallpaper on your desktop or phone! This is one of my personal favorites and is my current phone lock screen.

Cherry Blossoms Tech Download | Cherry Blossoms | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Cherry Blossoms Tech Download | Cherry Blossoms | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

You can download the photo here! If you do download it please let me know! I’d love to personally thank you. :)

Avocado Dye Summer Dresses | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Last year, I saved around 40 avocado pits to dye one of my favorite white dresses pink that had gotten some random dark spots on it. The dress was too new to donate and just needed some new life breathed into it.

I placed the pits in a cheese cloth and then into a LARGE pot and boiled them until the water was very pink . I left the dress in the pot for around 4 hours (until it reached the desired pink hue I was going for) and then simply rinsed it with cold water and voila! It was like having a new dress.

Nomadic Goat | Portland, Maine Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Nomadic Goat | Portland, Maine Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

Nomadic Goat | Portland, Maine Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

My friends over at Nomadic Goat asked me to take some photos of their studio and I was so thrilled to be able to do this for them. I couldn’t have asked for a sunnier morning to capture their studio. The sun really pours in and the light bouncing off their disco ball really makes for some fun effects.

3 Years in Maine | Portland, Maine | Lifestyle and Commercial Photographer

Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine

This May marks 3 years since we left SF for Maine. To be honest I hadn’t really thought of Maine when we were looking for places to live outside SF. I wanted to stay in SF forever. The weather and the culture (which is rapidly dying due to the tech boom) were really ideal for me. I loved the city and its quirkiness, the fog, the parks, the hills, and the list goes on. I never really saw us leaving, then I got pregnant and realized needed more space than a one-bedroom apartment could offer us.

We looked outside SF. All around. We looked at Sacramento. We looked at Portland, Oregon. And then one day my husband said “What about Portland, Maine?” After doing some digital digging I liked what I saw. The Portland, Maine food scene looked on par with SF and the idea of being close to the coast was a huge plus (I love being close to an ocean). So the hunt was on. We would look at houses every day and then our current house came on the market. It seemed to be the perfect fit for us and we put an offer in, without physically seeing it. We had a lovely realtor who did a walk-through and filmed the whole thing, but my husband didn’t fly out until our offer was officially accepted for the inspection.

Everything after that happened rather quickly and honestly, I had a hard hard time with it all. I am not a quick person. I like to work on things slowly. To give you an idea, in college, if I knew I had a paper due I’d start working on it 3-4 weeks before it was due. We uprooted our life and left SF so fast that it left me whirling. I had a new baby, I was living in a new state where I knew no one, I had a new body that I was still getting used to, and I was battling postpartum depression. It was a lot.

But, after a few months, I started to meet people, explore what Maine had to offer, and tackle my depression head-on. Maine is a beautiful place with great food and more places to explore than we usually have time for. While, i’m still getting use to the winters here there is something really magical about this area of the world.

Looking backward to look forward | Portland, Maine | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer

commercial and lifestyle photographer Portland, Maine

This first image was made in 2017. I was very pregnant and not able to talk photos like I been use to so I started to experiment with still life photography. My styling was very…lacking and my lighting way too harsh. Honestly, i’m embarrassed at this when i look at it, but if I hasn’t had done this I would not have grown as a photographer and artist.

This image is from 2021. I have spent the last few years studying still-life painters and really trying to emulate their styles in my work, Rachel Ruysch is my favorite. There is so much detail in their work from the lighting to how the items are arranged in the paintings. It takes a lot of work to think about all those details when creating a still-life photograph like this. Most of the time I don’t really know where I am going with it. I have a subject and I just start to build a little world around it. This is why they usually take me a great deal of time to create.

Anyways, I say all of this to make a point that creating for the sake of creating is important to grow as an artist. Have any other artists felt the same way?

Temple Turmeric | Portland, Maine Lifestyle and Commercial Photographer

Temple Turmeric wellness shots from a few years ago. I didn’t have any creative direction and really just grabbed things that I thought really went with their branding and feel.

Laura Sprinkle | Commercial and Lifestyle Photographer Portland, Maine

Back in December Laura Sprinkle asked me to photograph her for her website revamp that was coming in a few months. The day was filled with lots of confetti, dancing, and a 90’s playlist that really got Laura’s heart pumping.