My Photography Journey

Hi there, I’m Lauren!
The creative energy behind Great North Exposure.

I’ve had a camera in my hand for over 20 years and now I’m here to use it to help your small business thrive through attention-grabbing photography and design.

My photography journey started when I joined my first photo club in elementary school. By 7th grade I was developing my own negatives and making enlargements in the darkroom, and in high school I bought my first DSLR with a grocery store paycheck. I downloaded a bootleg copy of Photoshop and spent my free time on a chunky desktop computer learning complex photo manipulation. My senior year I was voted president of the school’s photography club and had my work published in Photographer Forum’s Best of Photography 2009.

After high school, I attended The University of Alabama {roll tide} in pursuit of a “real” job. I graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a fiance, student debt, and a career path that didn’t set my soul on fire.

So a few years later when we had our first son, it was an easy decision to step off that path and stay home to be with our baby.

Over the course of 8 years our family moved from Alabama to Tennessee to the New York City metro area and grew by three beautiful-but-totally-crazy boys. Through all the transitions that motherhood brought, my passion for photography remained constant and brought me back to who I was before becoming a mom. I never stopped practicing and learning new skills, and sharing my work online led me to the opportunity to create images for brands such as Seventh Generation, Journeys Kids, Jan & Jul, and more.

We were never “city people,” so to cope with the hustle of big city life, our family made it a priority to spend summers traveling. For weeks and months at a time we would escape all the concrete, seeking out remote and beautiful places to pitch our rooftop tent. We road tripped, camped and hiked our way back and forth across the continent with our kids in tow, eventually visiting all 50 states and 10/13 Canadian provinces… until we found the place that made us want to stay.

In 2021 we sold our house in the city and most of our belongings, stuffing what was left into a mid size U-Haul and driving out of New Jersey for the last time to our new home: Alaska.

Here we found the lifestyle we had always wanted for our children, living close to nature with an amazing, resilient community. I’m inspired every day by not only the vast landscape but also the stories and strengths of our neighbors.

There is no doubt that Alaska is where we were meant to be, and my goal is to make a positive impact in our community by helping local businesses succeed through strategic photography and marketing. Because when our small businesses thrive, the whole community wins.

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