I have always felt the pull of wanderlust- a deep desire to explore the world, discovering the exotic and unfamiliar along the way. My parents bought me a camera for my first trip to Europe when I was 10 years old and I quickly discovered that through my lens I could capture a piece of wherever I was and make it my own. After that trip I caught a bad case of the travel bug. I set off to see everyplace and everything this world has to offer, happily checking off destinations from a never-ending list in my head along the way.
Along with my affection for travel, I have always had a deep love for animals. Everything from dogs to dolphins, pigeons to parakeets, I adore (with the exception of spiders). In 2008 I went on a trip to Panama and before I left I was bursting with excitement at the idea of seeing monkeys in the wild. When I got there it was amazing to see them and I had a wonderful time feeding the mischievous little creatures bananas. But the experience that really stuck with me was photographing a keel-billed toucan in its natural habitat. The keel-billed toucan is a stunning bird and spotting one in the wild is becoming more difficult because they are being seriously threatened by deforestation in Central America. That experience inspired me to start a project photographing endangered and threatened species in their native habitats and conservation efforts to protect them. This series led me to the Arctic to photograph polar bears and on a 5-month journey traveling throughout Africa, India, and Asia. I worked with and photographed lions, jaguars, cheetahs, elephants, pandas and orangutans just to name a few. As a young photographer it is difficult to make a substantial impact on the world, but I believe in the power of images to create change and if we do not try to save these animals now all that will be left for future generations are the pictures. While I hope you enjoy my images, I also hope that they are not some of the last taken of these animals in the wild.
I chronicled on this blog all of my experiences, adventures and (many) misadventures of traveling and volunteering as a solo female abroad in third world countries. Check out some of my favorite posts below by clicking on the corresponding thumbnail image.
