behind the lens

Hi. a little about me…i love kids, dogs, live music, traveling, coffee, buffalo chicken, vodka, running (wait…do it, don’t love it), bravo & a good true-crime documentary.

i am a mom to a fun & spirited 11-year old girl who was both a seriously colicky baby & then a complete maniac toddler. and i am stepmoM to two more super fun & amazing gals (twelve & fifteen). I also have a wonderful husband, an elderly, snoring shih-tzu & a very anxious rescue poodle mix. and we all live in a house that is always really loud.

however, our loud home & my daughters’ early years testing the limits of my patience & motherhood (love you, mean it) has made me well-versed in both reverse psychology & taming the roller coaster of emotions one kid can have in the course of five minutes — while also being able to perform, on-demand, most anything from the disney catalog (1982-present).

but, at one time, long ago, my brain was filled with useful knowledge & not Disney junior lyrics, I graduated from Miami University (Ohio) in ’04 and received a Master’s Degree in Digital Journalism from Chicago’s Depaul University in ’09. I am old.

As a journalist, I have always been very interested in the stories that photographs have told throughout the years and When my dear grandmother passed away in 2010, I sat with my grandfather looking through endless boxes of old photographs (also sobbing into our lasagna) that spanned their entire 62-year marriage…The smiles, the tears, their life together, our family’s legacy captured in small 4x6s and more lasagna.

I decided at that moment to leave a career in publishing and begin my career in photography so I might help provide people with boxes full of memories.

I shoot canon, almost exclusively in natural light and specialize in children & family photography with a few pets, lovers & events thrown into the mix.

My style is natural, fun & unposed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this far down (seriously. I am sorry I cannot gift you back these three minutes of your life) and I look forward to hopefully meeting you & the ones you love soon.

michele (now we are talking in the third person) was awarded ‘chicago’s best kids’ photographer’ by better magazine in 2022, is a proud member of the national association of professional child photographers (napcp) & her work has been featured in a few, fun places such as NAPCP, Chicago Tribune, InspIRED MAGAZINE, Modern Luxury: North Shore, life & lens & Paper Source.