ABOUT ME

Well, hello there!  I'm Mia and I originally launched my photography business in SoCal but after some very scary (but also SUPER exciting) big life changes, I decided to move myself to gorgeous Portland, Oregon.  

I adore children and animals and spent most of my professional life as a kids dance studio owner.  Three year olds are my favorite humans, by the way.  And oddly, owning a dance studio is what led me to rediscover photography...
 

Back when I was in high school, many moons ago, I took an elective photography class to nourish my creative side. At the end of the year, our instructor encouraged us to enter a photo into our state fair's art contest.  She let us know that no previous student had ever been accepted but reinforced that it would be a good exercise in bravery, so several of us mustered up the courage and submitted with zero expectation.

Much to everyone's surprise, not the least of which being mine, I was accepted. The prize I won was summer scholarship to Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. I was STUNNED. It was an absolutely amazing opportunity.  So amazing that there was NO way I was going to attend. Every other person who won the scholarship was an aspiring visual artist. I felt sure my acceptance was was a fluke and I'd be an imposter among real artists. 
 

Fast forward and my career path took me in the direction of dance and I became a dance studio owner.  And dance studios generally need photographers for their recital pictures. Finding photographers ultimately became a frustrating experience, so I decided to invest in my own camera and do it myself.  So in May of 2018, decades after I had last handled a camera, I became the recital photographer for my dance studio. 

With camera in hand and a beautiful Golden Retriever in my home, I decided to explore pet photography. Enter a bunch of magical, serendipitous events and this is where I now find myself...full circle, doing what fate had hinted I should explore many years ago, comfortably stationed behind the lens, loving every subject I'm able to capture and reveling in how much incredible joy and meaning a simple image can provide the lives it touches.