..sQuiReL..

Lately it has been rainy and cloudy, I didn't think I would find anything. We had gone to my husbands family's house for dinner tonight. On our way home from their house, I spotted a dead animal. We pulled up and slowed down, rolled down our windows and took a peak. It was a squirrel. I had to have it so we drove home and grabbed my camera and drove back out to get it..

.. pRoVo uTaH..

..fIsH..

On assignment for another photograph I stumbled upon this one.. I was so excited, I am pretty sure I even told my husband that it was so "wicked" and that I wanted to pick it up and bring it home. It just looked so neat I couldn't help myself..

.. utah lake provo utah..

..sKuNk..

This is the mentioned skunk from before, the one that had just been hit and smelled terrible. Yep here he is. He stunk so bad, and all I could think was that it was going to seep into my clothes.

.. tremonton utah..

..biRd..

Like I mentioned before, I am not good at identifying birds. So when we arrived at this one, there is no way to even know what it was. All we can figure is he misjudged his landing and nosedived into the pavement. Tough break..

.. perry utah..

..dEeR..

When we found this deer, a strange thing happened. A truck full of people stopped and stared at me as I took this photograph, I have to admit I felt really odd and didn't know what to think but I took it anyway. Maybe they wanted the hide?

.. brigham city utah..

..rAcCoOn..

These animals I come across most frequently in Utah. Not really a surprise, but I do photograph each one in hopes of finding one that is really awesome and maybe out does the one I had before.

I was on my way to see my grandparents with my family and had fallen asleep while riding in the car. The next thing I know we are screeching to a halt and pulled over on a freeway off ramp. I was certain that we had a flat tire or had been in an accident. But nope. My dad had spotted a cat and wanted me to photograph it. While we were walking down the off ramp, which was a tad scary, we ran into this little fella. I couldn't resist, his bones were exposed. How totally WICKED!!


.. perry utah..

..piGeOn..

My husband and I are avid travelers. When we have a spare weekend and a few bucks we will take off and go somewhere fun. This trip we decided to take his mom to New York for her birthday. She hasn't been there since she was a kid and lived there so we figured it would be a fun one.

While we were hanging out there we decided to go across the brooklyn bridge. It is a pretty fun walk and you can see the skyline perfectly. We were trying to find our way to the walkway to the bridge when I stumbled across this. He was under the bridge near what I can only assume was a bum's house. Got to love it..

.. manhattan new york..

..hOoF..

Now this one has a funny story.

We were driving on the back roads of northern Utah looking for roadkill. My dad was driving and spotted a pretty full skunk. He slammed on the brakes and went straight for the ditch on the side of the road. I freaked out thinking it was something else, am I retarded? I know we were looking for roadkill.. The skunk was fresh, like he had just been hit. We decided to plug our noses and go in for a look. We walked down to it, holding our breath for as long as we could, I took a few pictures of it and we started walking back. I was sniffing myself all over to make sure I didn't smell like skunk, I am a bit paranoid. My dad reassured me that I didn't. We started talking about how this is really weird for a project and how I am 100% positive that every person who sees me doing it or hears about it thinks I am nuts until they see the images, when my dad trips. I was a little startled and asked him if he was okay, he said yeah. I looked back to see what had caused the stumble and sure enough there was this hoof. Wow, talk about luck. We would have never seen it had he not tripped over it.

.. bear river utah..

..cAt..

This find broke my heart.

I am not much of a cat person, however I do know that there are people out there that are attached to cats. I know that someone loved this animal and I felt kind of guilty photographing it, but I couldn't miss the chance. So for all you cat lovers out there.. I am sorry.

.. perry utah..

..bLuE hErOn..

This find was surely unique.

I am not much of a bird person. I don't know hardly any of the species of birds. But on this find, I knew it was a good one. I didn't know what I was looking at but I photographed it.

Later that day I showed my grandfather a picture of this bird that I had taken with my phone. He informed me that it was a blue heron. Apparently they are endangered and one can be fined a good deal of money for bringing harm to these birds. I assure you when I got there he had already died.

.. tremonton utah..

..cAtFiSh..

As I am sure you can tell, I take my camera everywhere I go now, in hopes of catching another find. This trip was no exception.

In my journey to find these things, I have gathered helpers who help me find the creatures and protect me from getting hit by cars.(phew!) This trip my dad joined in the help. For this find he almost went head first into a filthy pond.. he didn't luckily.. thanks dad!

.. reeses pond brigham city utah..

..peLicAn..

On a recent adventure I found another friend to add to my collection.

.. point reyes california..

..rOaDkiLL..

*This project is one that I have to admit is a tad morbid for some. So if you have a semi weak stomach you might not want to look, but they really aren't all that gross.

Promise..


In my life, while doing art, I find myself looking at my life and things around me for inspiration for photography assignments and projects. I often feel that my best inspiration comes from what is in my little world. About six months ago I was challenged with creating a body of work. I wasn't sure where to look for an idea that could create a body of work, and so naturally I turned to my life. At the beginning of this project, my sweet little dog tyke had just been diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma. It is a rare, extremely hard to treat form of skin cancer. We were told that the outcome looked bleak and that we should spend all of our time with him. I started to panic and worry, as any mother (since he is my child) would. I didn't know what the future would hold or how I would accept it. So in efforts to help myself feel okay with death I started this project.

Confrontations with Death.


.. tremonton utah..



..ocean beach, san francisco california..


..orem utah..


..ocean beach, san francisco california..


..brooklyn new york..


..provo utah..



I have decided to create an even bigger body of work, so it is in the works. When I find some new fun ones I will post them and let you know. It will be a show I am putting on this fall, I will also let you know details on that.

For those of you wondering.. Tyke did pass away. He fought for four and a half months to beat this cancer and was on the path to recovery when he left us.

..tyke..