Abi Coop
Melissa Richard
Kristen Ryan
Welcome New Hello Artists & Pros | June
Welcome New Hello Artists & Pros | June
Naomi Werkmann
Tell Us About Yourself!
I’m Naomi, a 25 year old mother of two children who are 2 and 5. I live and grew up in a metropolitan area in Germany. During my school time and before my studies I spent some time abroad (US and South Africa) where I met my boyfriend and father of my children. I study psychology and have almost completed my Masters. Afterwards I hope to be able to work in research. I have always had a love for art and music. I used to play Cello, now I sing and play guitar. And I photograph of course. I love telling stories with my work and I have a big love for details. Which is why I also love decorating around the house and doing crafts with the kids. I love love love autumn and winter time. I’m an outdoor person, enjoy hiking and gardening. Maybe “old soul” describes me quite well. I have a sweet tooth, which is probably why I love baking. I also enjoy cooking but not as much. My favorite time of the year starts with the beginning of September. I love the warm feeling of autumn and Christmas time. While I can be a home body and like the cozy feeling of home I do have a passion for traveling, meeting new people and learning about and from them. I am very curious and love learning new things and getting better at all the things I do. This is why I think I would fit very well into the Hello Storyteller community. I really hope I can continue to learn and grow on my photography journey in this amazing community.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
My creative style can best be described as dark and moody but also with rich colors. I love images with dark and rich tones as I feel they best capture the mood that I want to safe in my pictures. To achieve this look I like to add contrast and enhance my shadows but also warm my colors a little bit. I shoot in natural light most of the time (except for in winter when I bring out my artificial light for indoor shots) and I love dramatic light as I feel it brings depth and life into my photos. I also love creating depth by adjusting my aperture (I mostly shoot wide open) and by using framing (I love plants). One of my favorite perspectives to shoot from is above the subject. I also love to shoot details (eg hands and feet ) as they hold so much beauty to me and need to be captured to truly convey a moment into a lasting photograph. I also like to experiment by using a Lensbaby and by setting creative focus. So all in all I would describe my style as dark and rich with a feeling of nostalgia.
What Inspires You To Create?
What inspires me to create most are definitely my children. They are the reason I taught myself to shoot in manual mode and learned editing techniques. My main goal is to capture their childhood in a beautiful way so that they will look at the photos and see how much love and happiness there was. But the more I got into photography the more inspiration I found. Now I feel inspired by many things in addition to my children. I have gotten into self portraiture and realized that photography is also my artistic outlet. So creativity itself inspires me as well. I try to get creative with shooting techniques (e.g. Lensbaby), compositions and colors. One more thing that inspires me is how much beauty there is around us that often goes unnoticed, like little flowers, or beautiful light patterns. Before starting my photography journey there were many things I didn’t even pay attention to. Now seeing beautiful light, a beautiful nature scene or a beautiful moment in everyday life can all be an inspiration for me to go out and shoot.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
As a Hello Artist I want to achieve multiple goals. My first goal is about my personal journey. I want to continue to grow and learn, as I see that learning and growing is a process that never ends. I think the Hello Artist community is the best place for this since in my view the best way to learn is by connecting with people who all share a passion of photography. I also want to connect with people as getting to know different people and their journeys, as well as their photography and editing styles is very enlightening and beautiful.
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Amy Wright
Tell Us About Yourself!
I am the proud owner of an ever-thinking, ever-analyzing brain. On any given occasion you can find me reading multiple different books, taking a photography class, writing, or following my three cute kiddos around with my camera. I received a bachelors degree in Creative Writing and find that writing grounds me. My love for writing laid the foundation for my love of photography. I love to learn and am always setting new goals for myself. I work really hard to build a very present, intentional life. That is why I branded myself “Creating This Life”, I believe we are all creating a life and I aim to create one I am really proud of.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
I am forever light inspired. I love using light to infuse the magic that I can feel in a moment of my clients’ and kiddos’ lives back into what I end up delivering to them.
What Inspires You To Create?
I am inspired by stories, beautiful light, and the change of the seasons. I believe we have lost touch with how beautifully magical the mediocre life truly is. I don’t believe we all need million dollar homes, tropical travels, and models to create something amazing. I am inspired by slowing down and being present, sometimes it’s the subtle shift in the weather that makes me feel that pull to be present and document, sometimes it’s dreamy light, and other times it’s simply the beauty of truth standing right in front of me begging to be saved and shared forever.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
I want to grow. I want to be pushed beyond my own capacity and grow in the ways I know this community can offer me. I aim to be the best storyteller I can, and I know this is the place to gain the tools to do that. I also LOVE writing and LOVE teaching, I have spent my entire life doing both in various capacities. I know that these are skills I can offer to any community and aim to help grow the community and hopefully someday gain the ability to teach or mentor within the community. I know I have a lot of growing to do, but I would be so honored to grow in the Hello Artist family.
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Ivana Reay-Jones
Tell Us About Yourself!
I am a photographer. I am a wife and a mom to an energetic, book-loving 8-year old boy. I love to cook, travel, learn new things, and hike. I am a lover of chocolate and great coffee. I am bilingual and can also keep a very basic conversation in French.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
Documentary. I have always been drawn to capturing more candid and honest moments. That is not to say that I never pose or plan my photos but my focus has traditionally been on capturing the personality of my subject and/or the mood of the moment. I would describe my creative style as honest, thoughtful, and capturing all the feelings or personality in a given moment. It is not unusual to see frowns, tears, pensiveness, smiles, giggles, annoyance, seriousness, excitement, and other feelings in my work.
What Inspires You To Create?
I am my family’s historian and storyteller. Looking through my own childhood family albums (which are limited and so precious to me) brings me so much happiness and joy and I want to create the same for my son. I love telling him stories from pictures of my own childhood and want him to be able to do the same when he grows up. Apart from our day-to-day, I also find inspiration in different forms or art, travels, food, drone photography, shadows, and interesting light.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
Growth and learning new things have always been my major motivators to get better at my art. Just preparing for this application has pushed me more creatively and I am excited to see more growth, inspiration, and learning through this group. There is always room to learn new skills and improve but also to be a teacher as we are all at different stages in our careers. I want to grow as an artist and push and challenge myself creatively.
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Elizabeth McGuire
Tell Us About Yourself!
I’m a mama to 5 littles, I’m quite shy and introverted. I started creating young sketching pictures of animals and eventually moving on to portraits of people. I started my photography journey back in high school with film, and eventually bought my first dslr after having children. I’m a huge metal head and horror movie fanatic, and I could spend all day antique shopping if you let me. I currently reside in a suburb right outside the twin cities with the dream of moving in the near future to the country.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
Fine art and lifestyle using natural and artificial light, and documentary film photography.
What Inspires You To Create?
My children and childhood nostalgia are my biggest inspiration. I also love to draw inspiration from music and films.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
To continue growing as a creative and photographer with the hopes of sharing my knowledge with others.
Social Media Links
Michelle Baisa
Tell Us About Yourself!
Well, I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart for 24 years. Together, we have 3 kids – 2 in college and 1 left at home who will be a senior in the fall and then… empty nesters!! I can hardly believe it! We are animal lovers. We have 4 cats and just rescued a 7 mo old pup a little less than 3 weeks ago, so we’re still adjusting to that. And then there are the fish and my daughter’s snake…. eek. I’m a teacher by degree but didn’t spend much time in the classroom before the kiddos became the center of my world. I started photography probably about 15 years ago and it has just snowballed into the thing that brings me so much joy in life!! I love being creative with it and even recently bought a film camera and started exploring the world of analog. I don’t see myself ever putting down a camera.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
I love to explore light and shadows and believe that is very much reflected in my work. I tend towards vibrant colors and contrast and strive to show off details and beauty, particularly in nature, but in other genres, as well.
What Inspires You To Create?
Light, shadows, the ever-changing natural world, big moments in life, challenges from other artists or just seeing the amazing work they’re doing
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
I truly enjoy connecting with other like-minded artists, so I’m really hoping to find my “home” in the Hello Storyteller community and that’s probably the most important thing to me! I do also love to help people and share my knowledge, so the possibility of writing blog posts and possibly eventually teaching or mentoring would be amazing.
Social Media Links
Jennifer Thomas
Tell Us About Yourself!
I am a mum to two girls (6 and 4), and I live in London, UK with my British husband. I am originally from the US (Pennsylvania), but I’ve lived here for nearly 21 years now. I’m a scientist by training (biochemistry / medical research) but I’ve been a stay-at-home mum since the birth of my eldest. Photography fills a need for me to have something creative and technical in my life. I’ve had a camera of some sort for most of my life, starting out with film. I only started taking classes though when my youngest was two years old.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
My photographs show how I see my children at this and every phase, our connections to each other and to the world around us. Both my children and I are constantly curious, and I want to capture their sense of wonder and how this in turn fuels their growth. I want to tell the story of our family in an authentic and beautiful way as part of my self-expression.
I like to include the environment to tell our story because I love the ‘small child in a big world’ theme. I am drawn to this because I feel as though I am experiencing the world again through my children’s eyes and because it is how I feel often – a very tiny part of a huge world. I’m drawn to atmospheric settings and I am inspired by beautiful light, strong colours and unique perspectives. I love to tell multi-faceted stories through composition and moment.
What Inspires You To Create?
My children and their discovery of the world around them inspire me to create. I am also drawn to strong lines and a good composition. I do also love beautiful light but living in the UK we don’t get to see much of it. Instead, I try to focus on colour, composition and moment.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
To be an active participant in the community. I would love to share what I have picked up about photography over the past few years.
Social Media Links
Alyssa Ahern
What goals are you hoping to achieve as Hello Pro?
I hope to become a mentor and a teacher. It has always been a goal of mine since day one of photography. I truly love to help others learn how to better their photography. I also really hope to be an influence in the community and a light. I hope to continue to grow as an artist. I always find that huge growth happens after being accepted into a program like Hello Pro. It pushes me to be better, knowing that I have a new title. But my ultimate goal is definitely to teach a class.
In what ways are you involved in the Hello Storyteller community?
I try really hard to comment on Facebook as often as possible. I also try to comment and share things in Instagram when I can. I post images to the Hello Storyteller community and I try to get responses in my posts. I have a little tog who is AMAZING. And I have loved the time spent mentoring her. It has really helped me see HOW to be a mentor and also that I really enjoy it. The community is truly my favorite community and I try hard to be seen and heard there.
Social Media Links
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