MEET ABBY
a Santa Cruz based portrait photographer
I’ve been behind a camera since braces and T-Pain (a long time).
Creativity has always been my thing. I was the kid running around with a camera, raised by artists (my mom’s not far off from the Princess Diaries mom). Painting, dance, music, and all things expressive were just part of the rhythm.
I’m also a big empath and people person. I’m the one who stops to say hi to the old men eating alone. And don’t even get me started on kids (especially my own). Kids are so often underestimated and deserve more people rooting for them.
Photography is art, and it’s people. It gives me a way to connect and create all at once. It just makes sense, I can never imagine my life without it.
when life feels alive:
when people silently laugh because they can’t breathe, sunlight across the floor in the late afternoon, when my daughter whispers nonsense into my ear, a perfect thrift score, hearing jazz music from the other room, long late night conversations with friends, girl road trips with no agenda, salty skin and tangled beach hair (though I do not love this), moments when everyone is talking at once and it feels like home.
Codie White
“Abby really considers who you are.”
Alexandra Sideman
“You will not regret this investment in her and in yourself!””
I’ve been doing portrait photography since eighth grade. I love/hate to say that I shot my first wedding around that time and offered “professional prom pictures”. But since I was one of the only people on Facebook posting photos with a blurry background, I guess it became my duty to serve the people of my town. I don’t make the rules.
I carried my giant camera everywhere, everywhere. Parties, family vacations, boats, planes, trains, you name it. In 2019 I became a full time photographer for a company that had me crisscrossing the country, photographing pro athletes and models. I realized what really lights me up is photographing real people. Families, kids, messiness, life, beautiful everyday connection.
For the past five years, that’s been my North Star. Family photography. Getting invited into people’s lives, watching babies grow up in front of my lens, and freezing those seasons of life into images that actually mean something to people.
MY PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE
Ivy, 2017NOW LET’S GET HONEST
HONORING THE JOURNEY
Life comes with its fair share of twists. Marriage, babies, kids… they bring joy, but also mess, exhaustion and everything in between. If you’re here, you already know that. The ups and downs aren’t side notes to the story. They are the story.
Wherever you are in it, just getting here probably took more than anyone else sees. It hasn’t been simple, and it hasn’t been easy. There’s wheezy laughter and there are tears. Beautiful noise and chaotic noise. Messes left behind by joy, and messes that just suck. It’s good, and it’s hard.
That’s the story I’m after. The imperfect one. Sometimes light, sometimes heavy. Always real.
