I have been a professional photographer since 1989. I am a Nikon girl from Tupelo, Mississippi and have a degree in photojournalism. My photography background is primarily in newspaper, but I've done documentary, weddings, events, portraiture and most recently gotten into fine art photography.

Because a large portion of my later newspaper experience was at community newspapers, I also have a background in layout and design, editing and writing. My last job in newspaper was as Editor & Publisher of a weekly newspaper back home. I left there to work as publications editor at the Georgia World Congress Center Authority in Atlanta. I only stayed a year because I absolutely hated Atlanta - lots of bad things happened, looong story. I left there to move to DC and have been with the U.S. Senate Photographic Services since Valentine's Day 2001. I am their Digital Asset Manager as well as a production printer so I know my way around Photoshop pretty well. That's my day job.

For myself, I have been doing art photography for the last 2 years. I had put my camera down during that bad period in Atlanta I mentioned, and I didn't pick it back up until January of 2006 when a very good friend and fellow photographer encouraged me to "get back in the game." I won an award with the first photo I shot. Since then I've had 6 gallery shows, won several awards, have begun licensing my photos and am going to be part of a coffee table book for The Exposure Group, a non-profit photography association in DC. (www.exposuregroup.org)

I have been shooting 100% digital since I picked my camera back up and I enjoy all print aspects of it - color, bw, sepia and infrared. I have had a Nikon D70 converted to infrared, and that has been my primary "focus" since September 2006 and I am developing a niche for it.

I am happily married to the love of my life, Scott Putz. (It's German, not Yiddish , so it's pronounced like "He puts the glass down.") He works for the U.S. House Committee on Transportation as their IT guy. We were married in September 2004 and recently celebrated the birth of our first child, daughter Cameron Lee Putz - May 14, 8lbs 7oz, 20 inches. She was born only 4 days after we moved to Knoxville, MD (Yes, we had a lot of life changes very fast, haha!).

So that's me in a nutshell.