My name is Cortney. Yes, I have a unique spelling to my name but I’m actually not from Utah. I grew up in a city named Reston in Northern Virginia. I love my career! I have been doing photography since high school but chose to only minor in art in college because I was afraid. I was afraid that if I put everything I had into it and failed, I would have failed to the point of no return. Looking back I should have made the leap then, but I would not have appreciated it as I do now.

As far back as I can remember, I have needed a creative outlet. When I was really young my dad let me paint on the walls of our home. Really! I can remember mermaids under a dark blue ocean, abstract landscapes, windows to other worlds, and the craziest jungle scene on my bedroom wall in high school (apparently primer and a good coat of paint covers everything.) It was in high school that I found photography.

For three years I spent countless hours in the darkroom developing and manipulating photos I had taken. Knowing that art isn’t always a lucrative or practical choice for a career, I choose to only minor in it in college.

Then, I started my family. I tend to go back and forth between following my head and following my heart. It is a beautiful ebb and flow relationship. Marrying the man of my dreams at age 21 was my heart's choice. He is my very best friend so a fear that he wouldn’t wait for me or would tire of me, made me decide 21 was old enough. I have four children, one girl, and three boys. Our most gorgeous Winter girl joined us in 2006 making me a mom, her baby brother Ledger came into our lives just before the end of 2008, Cabott made us a family of five in 2011, and last our ender baby Dutch was born at the beginning of 2014. Four is a lot!

When my first little baby girl Winter was born I was heartbroken that her baby photos in the hospital were horrible. They looked like my baby photos from 23 years earlier. The photographer laid her on a blue and pink paper, hung a camera over her, and snapped a mugshot. She was more beautiful than Snow White, that’s why we named her Winter, but her photos were just terrible. That is where my business started. I had to change that for as many other mamas as I could.

My husband says I am happiest when I am pregnant or have a new baby around (haha I think he forgets about the emotional hormonal episodes) so Maternity and Newborns are a very natural choice. Women with a bump make me smile from ear to ear. I think everything a newborn does is phenomenal and cute, even when I get peed on.

Classically trained with film and a darkroom, digital photography was like stepping into a wonderland. Photography holds so much of my passion for life. Capturing life through my lens is amazing and mesmerizing. My heart is full when photography is apart of my day.