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Hi! I'm Deirdre. I'm a photography based portrait artist located in Belleville, IL. I typically photograph within a 2 hour radius of that, but I love traveling and exploring new places! I typically do a road trip to New England every year, where I have both family and amazing clients whom I photograph, as well!
I have four kids; they are my muses. I love collaborating with them to create photos that incorporate things that they love or scenes of things that they have imagined - something I also love doing for my clients.
I absolutely love art and stories, which naturally brought me to creating scenes through photography. One of my favorite stories when I was little was Miss Rumphius; are you familiar with it? In the story, Miss Rumphius's grandfather tells her that she must "do something to make the world more beautiful." She plants flowers all over her town to accomplish this. Photography has been how I've tried to do this in my own life: creating beautiful, unique images for my clients that bring them pride, feelings of being loved and self-love, worthiness, and joy.
My love of stories is also how I came up with the name of my studio. It's a nod to Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," but also references the idea of what I see through my camera lens and what is reflected back to you through the looking glass - that is to say a mirror. Who you are, who you think you are, who you want to be.
I am constantly studying new techniques in lighting and editing to make sure I can provide my clients with the best. I also participate in competitions to help me grow as an artist to better serve my clients, and have achieved the designations of Certified Professional Photographer through the Professional Photographers Association (PPA), and Click Pro Elite, through the Click Community. I'm currently working on attaining my Master Artist degree from the PPA.