About me

Twenty five years ago most girls had Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers, Hubba Bubba gum, and Binaca rattling around in their purses. Me? I had a pocket-size 35mm Olympus XA with this cool little screw-in, side-mount flash – a gift from my Dad when I was in 10th grade. For more than a quarter of a century, I have continued to tote a camera around at all times. Capturing candid images of friends and family slowly expanded to photographing friends of friends. Then came more referrals, requests to document special events, jobs covering professional gigs, and a ridiculous number of equipment upgrades. Pretty soon a business was born. Nowadays, Artemis Photography allows me to do what I love and get away with calling it “work”.

About My Style

If every last detail in your portrait is razor sharp, I have surely made a mistake. You see, my ideal images have very shallow depth of field, meaning only where I want you to look is sharp and the rest of the image falls away to gently blurred backgrounds or foregrounds. To me, it is infinitely more interesting to have someone’s eye drawn toward a small area of detail than be bombarded with every leaf, button, and distraction that might exist.

Natural light makes my heart beat faster. It’s always my preferred style of shooting but sometimes, like the song says, you’ve got to “Love the one you’re with.” If I’m stuck with uninspiring light, that’s alright. I’m not afraid to add a little “umph” when the available light is lacking. Oh, and overly posed positioning embarrasses me … and most of my clients, too. Therefore, I stick with a more relaxed style, occasionally offering tips that flatter but primarily allowing people to move and behave naturally.

Though I work in breathtaking Colorado, where the setting itself is worthy of a portrait, I prefer to photograph people. To me, nothing is more fascinating than curious, funny, characterful PEOPLE and I feel honored every time I get to step into someone’s world and offer them a chance to frame their own special moment.

About My Gear

I shoot with Canon simply because my father shot with Canon. Having a camera collector in the family allowed for lots of fun experimentation and helped me discover exactly what I wanted from my equipment. When I turned professional, I jumped, headlong, into the digital age. These days, a Canon 5d is my constant sidekick. Usually, I have not one, but two, of them slung around my neck. This practice might keep me at the chiropractor’s but it enables me to shoot fluidly without the delays of excessive lens changes. Never underestimate the benefits of being able to shoot rapidly and without interruption, especially when photographing wily children and pets.

Fast, quality lenses delight me and I am proud, nearly to the point of snobbery, of my collection of “L” glass. I also maintain a smattering of quirky, special use lenses that allow me the creativity to capture images as I see them in my mind’s eye. I am, indeed, a bit fussy about my equipment. I like using only full-size sensors for digital photography and I like to be highly mobile. If I must be tethered to complicated gear or if something must be plugged in to operate, I’ll pass, thanks. I want to be able to move – onto a chair, down on the ground, anywhere I need to be – to get the image I seek.

The fact that I am particular about the technical elements of photography should not imply that I am a fussy person in general. The perfectionistic side of my personality stays pretty much confined to the mechanics of the craft and you’ll be relieved to learn that I am very easy to work with and singularly un-fussy.

Please contact me to schedule a session.