Hey! Thanks for visiting. This is the place I’m going to tell stories in a couple words and a lotta photos.

For this first post, I’ll tell you a bit about me and my journey with photography. Here we go.

My love of photography started when I bought my first point and shoot when I was 12 years old. It was a hot pink Canon 1200. I was going on a church retreat and I wanted to take pictures of my friends and I (aka, one billion selfies.) I ended up taking a billion pictures of flowers instead and discovered the beautiful thing called shallow depth of field. Present day Natalee still shares this love. Of course I didn’t know how I achieved this, as Auto was the best and only setting (obviously), but I did know that I loved how I could take what was in front of me and capture that moment to keep and look back on. At first I shot a LOT of macro, and I mean a lot! Some of my first photos consisted of close ups of butterballs, plants, and random bokeh of Christmas trees. From there I started photographing my friends, and documenting my travels. I realized that I really loved the art I could create with my camera.  So, in grade eight I decided that I wanted to go into the Photographic Technology program at NAIT. The next four years were spent wondering what it would be like and praying that I got in! And I did! The program was everything I hoped it would be! I learned so much about photography and about myself as well.  I know now that I enjoy everything about photographing love.  When my clients look at my pictures, I want them to remember how they felt in that moment, with their loved one by their side. I aim to create images that will represent your love in a photograph. It is so incredible that I can do this as my job and I couldn’t have wished for anything better!

Now that you know the 5 W’s behind my photography, let’s do 10 facts about me.

1. Jesus is my #1. I am overwhelmed by His grace every day.
2. The ocean is my happy place, However, I live nowhere near it. I was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. I call the prairies home but the ocean calls me often. (UPDATE: I now live in Vancouver!!! Can you guess what my favourite part of living here is?)
3. I’ve played soccer pretty much my whole life. I’ve played in the lowest division and the highest division.
4. My parents are my biggest fans. (Shout out to Rocky and Brenda!) My dad always tells me to try my best in everything I do and my mom is the best encourager and voice of reason. My sister Alana also deserves a shoutout. She helps me brainstorm ideas, proofread posts, and she is the best sister a girl could have!
5. I am obsessed with marble. Is this a trend? Who knows, but I currently own a marble water bottle, laptop case, phone case, notebook, you name it!
6. I love to travel. I love the feeling of being in a new place, surrounded by a different culture. I hope to do destination weddings sometime soon!
7. I’m never satisfied with the ordinary. I could never be content with the same thing day after day. That’s why I love photography, everyday is different and I’m always pushing myself to get out of the box.
8. My friends mean the world to me. I am so thankful for them and would do anything to help them.
9. My favourite pizza is the Cavoletti from Famoso. Seriously, honey on pizza? So good. Don’t knock it til you try it!
10. I was born missing my left arm. Yup, just popped out the womb without it! A lot of people feel bad for me, but I really see it as more of a blessing than something that’s limiting. It has given me so many opportunities to talk to people and share my story. Plus, being a one armed photographer in a world of two armed photographer’s is pretty cool.

Thanks for sticking around for my first blog post! There’s so much more to come!

xo, Natalee.