Let's start with some facts. Born in '82 in Sumter, South Carolina and after high school, I went to university for three years. Disappointed that university was proving to make me more unhappy than educated, I left with the intent to go back when I found my "happiness." In December of 2004, I found myself shivering, in the dark, on yellow footprints, about to walk through the shiniest set of metal doors I had ever seen.

Three months later, and a whole lot of things I couldn't unsee and couldn't un-experience, I proudly earned the title of United States Marine. Two duty stations and one deployment later, I had the most profound experience of my life; I gave birth to my one and only daughter. I remember staring at my wide-eyed, black-haired and caramelly baby thinking, "I am woman! Hear me roar!" I felt so unbelievably amazing. Becoming a Marine was definitely trumped by this experience!

After the Marines, I attended a for-profit school and got a kick-start in mastering digital photography and processing.  Shortly into this exciting new adventure, my Marine husband took us across the Pacific to Iwakuni, Japan.  Now this, this is where the real lessons about myself started to change the path of my life.

Now, I'm here!  Living in Virginia Beach, trying to bring my passion and love for portraiture to my community.  I've come to realize that military and children portraiture really speak to my soul.  There's nothing quite like seeing a Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps staring at his portrait, speechless, pondering on who he's become over the years or seeing the bashful excitement in a young girl's eyes when she sees who she's becoming as a young lady.

And with this thought, I want to share... I believe there are moments we allow to breeze by us, never giving them a second thought, until it's too late; until the moment has passed and we regret not really feeling what that moment was doing to us. I want everyone who comes to me for a portrait to take those moments, those milestones and really feel them, because I guarantee, when that moment has passed and you reflect on the change it has made in your life, you won't regret it, you will appreciate it, grow from it and become more because of it.