07/04/2026
Straying from my normal content for a minute to share some work that I dug up from baby photographer Michelle in 2003 and wax poetic for a moment.
I've been talking a lot lately to younger photographers about finding and following their passion in what they do. Find the thing that sets your soul on fire and it will show you the way.
For me, it was adventure sports. I hated photographing people in my early 20s,if you could even imagine. But one day, the marketing director for an adventure race company sat at my bar. In chatting, he recognized that I was both a young adventurer *and* photographer in a Midwestern city where that was pretty uncommon. He offered me a paid gig to cover their race and that was quite literally the turning point in my photography journey, and the beginning of my career. I realized I DID love photographing humans, it just needed to happen OUTSIDE of a studio.
For the years to follow I ended up traveling the country, photographing adventure races from NYC to Tahoe, and everywhere between. This time period gave me the confidence to set out and travel all lower 48 for 7 years as a solo mama, to do it all again, just a little differently.
Finding how to tie together everything that brings me joy was truly a *right place, right time* situation 25 years ago. Honestly? I call it fate. Older Michelle is so grateful for all of the ways the stars aligned for baby Michelle back in the day and she can't wait to see what the future brings for old Michelle and her art. 😊
