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Behind the Lens

RachelProProfile-100Hi, I’m Rachel! I’m a coffee addict, fresh fruit loving, smoothie making, closet chocoholic and slightly obsessed with DIY. When I’m not busy chasing my own three little monkeys around I love capturing amazing images of other littles. Photography is the way I like to look at life, and I’m so happy to share it with you!

In early 2007 we had our first son! I soon realized that this little bundle of squirmy noise was changing rapidly before my eyes! It seemed in next to no time we were flying through the milestones, sitting, crawling, cruising and walking! I knew from the get go that I wanted to take oodles of photos of each of these new phases with my lad. I had an artistic eye for photo composition, but the extent of my technical experience was a point and shoot camera.

Fast forward to Christmas of that year. Our 8 month old was crawling away and helping himself to any and all decorations within his grasp. My husband, who also is a talented and creative graphic designer, had been doing his homework on DSLR cameras and gave me a Nikon D300 for Christmas!

This was an intense learning curve in cameras. I studied the manual for DAYS before I ever even attempted my first shot! However, after that initial shutter click, I was hooked! I practiced with settings, and shutter speeds and different kinds of focus. It was simply amazing what I could do with this camera! I also invested a lot of time in online study to learn the in’s and out’s of real photography.

I began to see a marked improvement in the images that I was able to create. My amazing man, started to plant little seeds of ideas in my mind (yes, he’s good at inception!) about turning my passion, since that was what it had become, into a business. I lacked his confidence at first, but after having the opportunity for some one on one mentoring with an excellent photographer, and getting to attend other photography related conferences, I felt it was indeed time to make my passion, my job.

So in 2010 CDO Studios became an official joint business venture with my husband, Stuart as the design partner! CDO Studios is a custom photography studio specializing in capturing the moments in life you never want to forget.

I quickly narrowed down the photography field to the subjects I love to shoot most! Mostly that consists of kids, of course! We have expanded our own family to include 2 lads and a little lady, who are often the subjects in my lens, but I found that I love to document the life journey of other littles as well. From Mommy-to-be shoots, Newborn, Birthday milestones through High School Seniors, I love to capture those growing years. I also like to capture Families and their interaction and dynamics. It’s always a fun time, and giving people images that really capture their memories is priceless!