Abi Coop
Melissa Richard
Kristen Ryan
Tell Us About Yourself!
I feel like I have already told you everything about myself! I am a mom to three girls (Eva, Mila, and Stella) and a wife to my husband Justin. We both make our living as pharmacists and I recently started to dabble in photography professionally. I bought my first “big camera” when I graduated pharmacy school but didn’t really use it very much at all until I became a mom. A couple months after my first baby was born, I went to a “wine and cameras” event at a local winery where a photographer was teaching beginners how to use their “nice cameras” and challenged us not to turn the camera back to AUTO when we got home. The competitive side of me loved the challenge and I ended up falling in love with photography.
How Would You Describe Your Photography Style?
My creative style is driven by my feelings of motherhood. I love to capture the little real life moments that make up our daily lives using a documentary approach. Sometimes I am inspired by the real life moments and help to move things or interfere with the scene to better tell the story – but most of the time I am right in the middle of the mess with my camera in one hand and a child (or coffee) in the other.
What Inspires You To Create?
My biggest inspiration are my feelings surrounding motherhood. I am a sentimentalist, a bit lighthearted, and a struggling perfectionist. Motherhood came at me with big feelings of love and an overwhelming sense of my own mortality. I felt the need to document and capture life as it is to preserve these memories for my children. I have three daughters and I want them to have a diary of their childhood, me as a their mom, and their sisterhood. I also want them to know that I am not perfect as a mom. When they look back on their photos of childhood, I want them to see that real life is messy and funny and beautiful. I want them to know that they can do anything they want to do and that the most important part is to have fun along the way.
What goals are you hoping to achieve as a Hello Artist?
I would love to join your community of talented and supportive photographers to continue developing my artistic abilities. I love to help others and therefore someday I hope to share my passion for photography through teaching others who feel inspired behind the camera.
Social Media Links
What goals are you hoping to achieve as Hello Pro?
My goal is to always keep learning from the community and continue growing as an artist. Another goal for me is to step into the Big Tog Little Tog program and step out of my comfort zone to offer my knowledge to other artists.
In what ways are you involved in the Hello Storyteller community?
I do my best to post my work and comment within the Facebook group. I try to help answer questions to other members when I can.I have loved being a part of all the awesome projects the Hello Creatives create and part take in, they have kept me inspired to shoot so much.
Social Media Links