After growing up in Evanston, Illinois, I received a degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan. I did not follow expectations to become a lawyer but got another degree in photography at Columbia College in Chicago. For the past three years I've been working as a dog walker/sitter for my one-woman company, Clara's Canine Care. For the ten years prior to that, I worked as an assistant for commercial photographers. I began photographing dogs seriously ten years ago. That's when I got my Miniature Dachshund, Anna. She was my first model.