I'm Natalie, a Montana-based photographer, artist, and designer. I live in a small town about an hour north of Yellowstone National Park, in one of the most spectacular parts of the country. I have a pioneer farm-girl heart, with a saltwater soul. I'm a hopeless romantic and I love helping others see their greatness. My affinity for photography started more than 25 years ago with film cameras and later on, darkroom processing. There is a beautiful tactile quality to film that's so different than today's digital format, yet the ability to have immediate access to images and editing is remarkable. To me, the camera is one of the greatest tools of creative expression, perhaps the most notable of inventions, and one of my favorite companions. 

 

My deepest inspirations have always been found in the natural world in wild places and wildlife, the unique character and details of historic architecture and places, in the energy that shifts when a good storm is coming, collecting objects in nature, in exploring through damp mossy forests and ocean tide pools, discovering secret places down dusty dirt roads, in witnessing the magic that can be seen between people who share a deep connection, and for certain, in capturing someone's true-self when I'm photographing them. Always an artist, I have explored multiple mediums, many of which I still have a passion for today. But with photography, it's like an instinct, and I feel compelled to take pictures as I see the world, preserved in time like little treasures. It's the candid, unprovoked, imperfectly-perfect moments that captivate me the most. Certainly, these are the moments that bring out the true essence and spirit of a person.

 

I've lived on a sailboat in the Caribbean, in a cabin in the Appalachian Forest, and now, I call the Rocky Mountains of the Wild West my home. All of these places-the many ways of seeing, of thinking, and feeling-my many travels and creative endeavors, have cultivated a deeper sensitivity to the world around me. This comes through in most everything I do. When you look out on the world with greater curiosity and openness, there is no shortage of inspiration to be found.

 

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." - Elliott Erwitt 1928

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