Meet Stephanie, a Charlotte photographer for the people who want to remember.
Mom of two and sentimental to a fault. Behind the camera for the families, couples, and elopements who already know how fast it's going.
The truth is, I started taking photographs because I was already mourning things while they were happening.
As a child, I would lose myself in my grandmother's old photo albums. The aged photos had worn edges, and I wondered who all these long-lost faces were and what their lives were like. My grandma would sit with me, naming people who were long gone before me. I would watch her expression… smiles, heartache, longing, and memories. I chase that bittersweet nostalgic feeling constantly; nostalgia lets us return to a time that no longer exists.
Thereafter, I couldn't unsee it. It's the way time moves through a family. The way a season ends before you've chanced to hold it properly. The way you can love someone for years and still forget the exact way they used to laugh.
I don't think we're meant to remember everything. But we are meant to remember more than we do.
That's what a camera is for, in my hands. Not for performance. Not for the highlight reel. For the quiet things. The ones you'll want back.
What it actually feels like to be photographed by me.
Slow. Unhurried. A little like hanging out.
My work is candid by instinct and lifestyle by approach, meaning I'm not going to spend our session arranging your hands or asking you to tilt your chin. I'm going to ask you about your week. I'm going to put your kids at ease. I'm going to step back and let the real thing happen, and then I'm going to be ready when it does.
Because the photographs people end up loving most, the ones that get framed, the ones that make it into the album, the ones their grown kids will fight over one day are almost never the posed ones. They're the in-between ones. The ones nobody was performing for.
I've been doing this long enough to know how to make space for those moments without forcing them. Long enough to read a family in the first ten minutes. Long enough to know when to direct, when to disappear, and when to quietly say "do that again" without breaking the spell.
And because I'm a mom myself, [her kids' ages or a phrase she likes, e.g. "to a five-year-old who narrates her dreams and a toddler who has opinions"]. I'm not fazed by tantrums, sticky hands, the kid who won't look at the camera, the baby who needs to nurse mid-session. I've been there. I'm there now. We'll figure it out, and the photos will be better for the realness of it.
WHERE I'LL MEET YOU
Charlotte-based. Passport ready.
Most weeks, you'll find me somewhere around Charlotte, usually trying out a new coffee shop or bakery, photographing families on back porches, couples in the Blue Ridge, elopements in someone's backyard.
I travel often, and I travel happily. I've photographed couples all over Italy, Paris, and Amsterdam, and the answer to "would you fly to ___ for this?" is almost always yes. If your love story is happening somewhere else, I want to be there.
The work is the same, whether you're fifteen minutes from my house or fifteen hours away. Slow, quiet, and deeply paid attention to.
The rest of me.
When I'm not behind the camera, I'm probably with my two girls, forever organizing the house, walking the dog, and late-night scrolling when I should be sleeping
I take too many photos of my family, and I have zero shame about it. I find sentiment in everything. I keep every card people send me. I'm the person who texted you the photo of us from four years ago because I just found it, and look how little she was.
If any of this sounds like your kind of person, I think we'd get along.
If you've read this far, we should probably talk.
The clients I love most are the ones who already feel a little tug in their chest about all of this. The ones who know they've been putting it off. The ones who have been meaning to, for a while now.
If that's you, I'd love to hear from you about your people, your season, and what you're hoping to remember. I write back like a friend. I always have.