Entry 2: Twenty Years Behind the Lens — Why I Finally Said Yes to Myself-

For more than twenty years I photographed the people I loved most — not as a photographer, but as someone who simply couldn't put the camera down.

I also couldn't stop looking at pictures. Photo albums, shoeboxes full of faded prints, tins of old snapshots passed down through generations. I loved playing with my grandmother's Nikon camera. I loved the way a single photograph could start a conversation about someone you never met — an ancestor, a moment, a whole life captured in one frame. Priceless doesn't begin to cover it.

As the years went by and I had a family of my own that love never left. I photographed bath time silliness and birthday parties, baseball games and violin recitals, kindergarten graduations, baseball games and cross country meets. Film gave way to digital. My kids grew up and had friends of their own and I just kept showing up with my camera. Senior pictures for my kids and their friends and friends of friends. A few families and newborns scattered through the years. And then — before I knew it — they all started leaving.

From time to time someone would say "you should really start a photography business." I would smile and say maybe someday.

Fast forward to January 2026. I'm sitting on my couch, one month out from back surgery, eight months into retirement after thirty years in the classroom, and my last baby had just left for college. For the first time in a long time life got very quiet. I started asking myself what this next chapter was supposed to look like.

Then I opened a fortune cookie from a local Chinese restaurant. It said: "Everything will now come your way."

I laughed. And then I picked up my camera.

Little Goose Lane Photography came to life in April 2026 — and the name comes from my first grandbaby, who we lovingly call our silly goose. She is the definition of true love and I wanted the name to carry that same feeling — soft, warm, authentic, and real. Everything I want my work to be.

I researched. I took courses. I built something from scratch on my own. And this little goose finally hatched.

What drives me is simple — these are the years that need to be captured. The years that fly by so fast that people look back and say I wish I had more pictures from when they were this little. I want to give families something that lasts — images their children will show their children, and their children will show theirs. That kind of timeless is what gets me behind the lens every single time.

If this resonates — The Founding Sessions are open now. Visit the Collections page for full details.