I wasn’t born with a camera in my hand, and I wasn’t interested in photography as a child. It all happened as a way to fill time.

I moved to Tennessee from Germany to attend Lee University here in Cleveland, TN and had, really, only one friend at to start with at college (and I photographed her wedding last fall!). I didn’t have a driver’s license or a car in Tennessee, and I was pretty miserable. Going from Europe to the South is quite the transition, and it took me some time to adjust. People talk so slow in the south!

And so as a way to pass the time and stay away from the “Greek Clubs” (sororities & fraternities for you non-Lee folk) at Lee University: I went and bought a Canon Rebel 35mm camera.

Behind that little 35mm is how I fell in love with Cleveland.

I would walk the town at all hours of the day and night and take pictures. I kept a little notebook of all the settings I used, so when I got my film developed I would know how I created the image. Every night before bed, I would read my camera manual. And slowly, but absolutely surely, I fell in love with creating images. Eventually, I made friends outside of college and started to go to shows. My first show (sans camera) was Blindside and MeWithoutYou and HOLY SMOKES, it was awesome. It hooked me on live rock & roll music and my college years were spent going to show after show after show. My first wedding was actually the singer of one of my favourite bands at the time, As Cities Burn.

And the snowball grew larger and larger and I knew I wanted to fill all my time with making photographs. And so after graduating with my BA in English Literature, I went to photo school.

Eight years later, I’m a full-time wedding & portrait photographer & couldn’t be happier with my career choice!

Here are some old film scans from my canon Rebel, taken waaaaay back in the day!

This cow field is where I got married three months ago!  I used to come out there in college and just read books, eat sandwiches, and watch the sunset. In fact, the first eight images are all from the cow field (aka. Narnia).

This was my first “paid” photoshoot. I didn’t even charge enough money to cover to cost of developing the 2 rolls of film I shot!

I’ve always loved downtown Cleveland, TN.

My old apartment downtown Cleveland (the 164) was a constant source of inspiration.

Stay weird, Cleveland!
 This building actually burned down last year…

Funny story…one time, in one of my night-time adventures, I slid under the fence that surrounded this building and went in. I thought it was abandoned because everything was so dusty and old looking. Then, a few months later, I met this guy and asked him what he did. He told me he was a night-time security guard for the Cleveland Chair Company.  (?!?!!!) I was like “WHAT?? I thought that was abandoned! I broke into it one night!” Whoopsie!