Biography.

I grew up in Kentucky. My father took me to estate sales and auctions, where my love for beautiful things was born. I still can't resist yard sales. My mother and grandmother instilled in me a love for good food, home cooked and beautifully presented, whether in a picnic basket or on the dining table. We'd start planning Thanksgiving dinner before we were done with our 4th of July burgers! The day before the feast, all the women in my family would gather at my Grandmother Gan Gan's house to polish silver, set the table, fix the flowers, and cut mint for the tea.

While in college my older brother loaned me his camera and gave me a black and white lesson, I became obsessed. The first picture I took was of a silver tea serving set. I shot it in our dining room, with natural light. I can still remember the way the light accented the lines of the silver, the light on the walnut dining table, the wood glowed. It was magical, how the light brought inanimate objects to life. I lost my desire to become a journalist, I left the University of Kentucky and moved across country to study photography at Brooks Institute.

Since then I've married (a photographer) had two kids, adopted three dogs, and lived in many places: California, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia, Vermont and now Alabama. We landed here when I went to work for Cooking Light Magazine, where I was on staff for 9 years. No matter how many stories or cookbooks I shoot I still have an insatiable obsession with tableware and light!