I met Charmaine in the fall of 2019 at Sassy Sister's, an organization made up of woman business owners who enjoy friendship as well as helping to promote each other's businesses.  When I heard that Charmaine was the publisher of Venice Lifestyle Magazine, I wanted her to know that there was a photographer in the group and I'd love the opportunity to work with her and the magazine.  

A few months later she called me and asked if I would photograph the Sassy Sisters meeting because she was running a story on them.  Since I was going to be there anyways, it was an easy assignment.  The pictures ran with the story and she called again the next month asking if I could take on another shoot.

I was honored when they wanted to feature ME in their July issue and use one of my wedding couples, Steve and Annie, on the cover.  Knowing that they had only featured a person on the cover once before, it was an honor that they liked my photograph enough to run it.  Steve and Annie were excited as well and I had fun getting them copies of the magazine so they could share it with their entire family.

As 2020 continued, Charmaine and the magazine's writer kept on calling.  Month after month they have asked me to photograph all sorts of people and businesses.  They know that I specialize in photographing people, but I have had the pleasure of stretching my skills to photograph other subjects like food, lingerie, and beauty products.  

So far, they have used twenty-three of my photographs on the covers of their magazines.  I have written a few articles for the magazine and given them subject ideas.  I have met new people and learned about a lot of businesses that I never knew existed in Venice.  

As the magazine continues to grow, I look forward to continuing to work with this amazing team.

Whitney has an incredible store Cocoa Yoga in North Port and I spent a morning down there photographing both yoga and her cafe.  The was chosen for September's cover about Style.

While out on an electric bike doing research and taking photos for Big Bam Bikes in Venice, I snapped this photo of this cute dog who was with another family on the bike ride.  Charmaine loved it so much she used it for the cover of the Kids and Pets issue in August.

In the July issue I researched and wrote an article about shore diving off of Venice Beach.  Who knew I'd end up featured on the cover.  Thanks to Mike Rogers for taking this photo of me and being our surface support.

June 2022 Venice Lifestyle Magazine feature-1

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I met Dan and Jackie O'Dowd when I photographed their daughter's bridal brunch and rehearsal dinner.  A few weeks later I had a great time photographing Dan and Jackie for their feature about his career and their new business WIN Reality.  Jackie provided the photos of the family when they were younger and Dan at the MLB Network.  

The May issue is all about Women and I loved photographing Pam Hilse and Danielle Neri for their feature stories.  I've known Pam from the Venice Yacht Club for a couple of years so this was a great excuse for a family photo shoot.  I had fun photographing Danielle at Apex Training Center where she teaches kickboxing.

For April I photographed the Clydesdale Horses and Cool Today Stadium.  Mike and I also went on Logan River Tours scenic tour on the Myakka River.  It was fun to get out and about for the magazine.

The magazine was planning on featuring Ken Anderson and we discussed the type of photo I was going to take.  We decided on a nice portrait at my indoor studio.  When Ken showed up for his shoot on his Harley-Davidson, just a few minutes before sunset, we grabbed our lights and headed down to the end of my block.  In just a few minutes we captured some great images of him with his bike.  Then we went back to the studio to capture his portrait.  Honestly, he couldn't take a bad picture.  Fortunately, the magazine was as excited about his motorcycle pictures as I was and used this one for the cover of the February 2022 issue.

The January issue is all about Health and Fitness and Wendy Rose, Deb Peters and the residents of Village on the Island were featured in this issue. 

The December issue is about planning parties and celebrating family.  This photograph of Karla's Lemoncilla made the cover of the magazine and tasted delicious!

The November issue is all about Celebrating local businesses and additions to our community.  I covered Wellen Park's Ground Breaking ceremony and was blown away by the plans for this new community.  It will completely change South Venice.

October's issue is all about food and features several local restaurants.  BrewzaBagels, Allegro Bistro, Boca Royale and Venice Yacht Club were all featured in this issue. 

I am excited that a personal photo session I did for "FUN" was chosen to be in the magazine.  Makeup artist Ashley Robinson at Give Me Glam and model Bailey Scott and I teamed up for a fun day of experimenting with different looks and styles.  In addition, Scoops Ice cream kindly let us come in and have a photo session in their ice cream shop.  We all had a fun time.

For the August issue, I had the pleasure of photographing two families with triplets.  We did one session at a local park and the other family session at Fox Lea Farms.  This young lady rides at the stables and her family enjoys watching her compete.  

After a year of talking to Tony on the phone, he asked if I could come photograph his wife Emily for the July issue about growing tomatoes.  Not only was it great to finally meet his family and take fun pictures, they sent me home with a big basket of fresh heirloom tomatoes.

The June issue featured Men and Roger is an avid Golf Shoe Collector.  I also enjoyed photographing Dave Lanning and his antique car collection and am proud that he was featured inside.

This special Mother and her daughter was an image from a family photo session I had just days before the magazine deadline.  Charmaine asked if I had any ideas for the cover and when I saw this frame, we both knew it would be perfect for the issue featuring Women.  Thank you to Kristen and Gabby for being amazing and looking beautiful at 9 am.

I had a fun session with Nancy Scott in her home.  She owns a concierge service and the photos were used inside the magazine to accompany her article.  Charmain decided that this photo was also great for the cover since the issue was about HOME services.

While photographing a wedding on Venice Beach, I captured this cute moment of the kids playing in the rose petals.  I proposed it to Charmaine as an option for the February issue and she loved it.

January 2021 issue featuring my husband, Mike Rogers on the cover.  

When Tony asked if I had photographed food before, I hesitantly answered YES.  I went to Allegro Bistro and the Venice Yacht Club and photographed their restaurants, people and food for the October issue.  It was fun photographing the food but it would have been more fun to sample it afterwards

(I didn't get to eat any of it)!

Tony asked me to write an article about photography for the September issue.  I had recently photographed Abby's wedding and included a picture of her in my article about "People Pictures, Tips to Take Better Portraits".  When Tony and Charmaine saw how beautiful she is, they asked to use a different picture of her for the September Cover about Fashion.

The story that really got it started for me was a feature they ran about ME.  They asked me to submit some of my favorite pictures from around Florida.  Over the years I have taken thousands of landscape and people pictures but I narrowed it down to a handful of my favorites.  We were all still in the early stages of mandatory COVID lockdowns but Charmaine was looking for a happy story (since we are always working two months ahead).  She saw my sunset photo of Steve and Annie and asked to use it for the July issue.  We were all honored to be featured.