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Reviews & Testimonials
From my business pages on Google maps & Thumbtack profile.
Who is behind the camera?
Hello, I'm Sharleen!
My traveling brought me here,
in the States, where I started
my journey as
Lifestyle & Portrait Photographer.
Already before, for years, Nature and Travel Photography kept me company during years of traveling and backpacking through Europe, Canada,e US.
"Why should I pick you as my photographer?
What kind of education, training,
and experience do you have
related to photography?
There is a lot of storytelling in my photo sessions, and I love that: kids while playing and exploring, couples while laughing and hugging, families while spending quality time together, and you enjoying your time, your surroundings, and your feelings. Photography is not only theory, it is practice: it comes from life as much as it has to have some bases of technique.
Still, knowledge and technique are important too. I have a University degree in Visual Arts and art history, which allows me to be very familiar with the composition of a portrait. It is fascinating to think that in the past, before cameras, portraits were an art reserved for nobility and painters.
When I take pictures and edit them, I like to think of them as a painting, and I want to create a real portrait, not only a snapshot. And not only a formal portrait...one of my favorite kind of art is expressionism and...well, think about the people portrayed by masters of this style like Van Gogh: those people are not still, are alive, they move, they act.
As far as techniques, I spent the last years attending photography courses and workshops in NYC with other professionals, and I practiced digital editing processing by taking detailed courses about Photoshop and Lightroom software. Editing is a fundamental part of the photographic process; what you cannot create at the moment of the photo session, you can do it after. Not always there is the perfect natural light or the perfect composition of natural elements. Software like Photoshop and Lightroom helps to bring the ordinary to the extraordinary enchanting the environment with little details that make the difference.
I got over 10 years of experience in Nature and Travel Photography, and over 3 years of experience as Lifestyle and Portrait photographer.
I encountered and manage practically any kind of photosession and of course so different types of families and individuals. I love to think that, through my photos, I gave them a tangible memory of a period in their life, and I look forward to being your visual storyteller too!
Before being a photographer, I had also 10 Years of experience as a model in Rome, Italy, and that allows me to understand what means to be on the other side of the camera. Can be intimidating as much as it can be fun. The right photographer will support you in both cases. Also, I remember what means to have a desired result in mind, and I formulated my value proposition aware of that.
I am here to help you with any scenario:
if you have a specific style in mind already, if you want inspiration for a beautiful way to tell your story with pictures;
if you love to have pictures taken and want the spotlight on you, or if do not feel that comfortable in front of the camera but still want to have a good outcome;
f you want to have fun and enjoy sweet moments and memory with your loved one.
For all this and for more, you are in the right place.
Just let me know how can I help you!
Get to know me
more...
...This is my story
I was born in a small town just outside Rome, Italy... My friends describe me as "a restless spirit"....my mother would probably say more "a confused daydreamer".
I left my grandparents' home at eighteen, right after my diploma in technical home design, and I attended University: before the faculty of Architecture in Rome, then finishing my studies in my hometown in the field of liberal arts (history, literature, archeology, art).
Very early I had to learn how to rise from ashes, and I always felt that little town was too small for my spirit, so after University I started to travel and explore Europe, Canada, and the United States. At first, with shorter journeys and backpacking (even weeks alone in the woods of Virginia on the Appalachian Trail! Black bears: check! Reaction: Oh my, I suppose to make friendly noises! I sang a Disney song. And "Mr. Sandman".)
After that amazing experience alone in the woods sleeping in a tent, I pushed myself more and more to leave behind everything to be ready to start a life abroad, maybe in Canada since I have that double citizenship.
But at the end of a trip across the US on the old Route 66, heading West like a pioneer, I attributed a “nomen omen” to the city of Phoenix, Arizona, where I meet my husband and I settled, spending years developing my art among painting, writing, and photography.
I found in photography a way to frame the beauty of the people and the places, transforming memories and experiences into something lasting and tangible.
I always had some form of creativity inside me but was not always simple to find a way or time to give a chance to it. In Italy, I worked as an architectural designer: in a way that combined some creativity with a source of income. My passion for visual arts ended up being just a side hobby: you know, often you need to compromise.
I dreamed most of my childhood to be a writer, I wrote poems for years, and I love them so. It is a way to make art with words. I have them published, in Italian, in a book called “La bambola di Cristallo” (“The crystal doll”) and for years I felt like my soul and essence could be seen from outside just through those words put together in that specific way. I wrote a few poems in English, but I still have not mastered the language graciously as I would like. I am working on a dystopic novel, that has a lot of my soul and experiences into it, writing it in pretty good Italian - and in progressively at-least-decent English.
Maybe here, at first, I rediscovered painting as an expression of creativity since images are a universal language: beauty is beauty without needing a translation. I paint landscapes with bright colors, and I prefer some form of expressionism and impressionism rather than plain realism; my inspiring artists are mostly Van Gogh and Monet. I love also the style of church windows - stained glass, and Art Nouveau in general, since it incorporates elements of nature.
As a photographer I started indeed as Nature Photographer, capturing the spectacular landscapes and details that I reached traveling around Europe and the US, before alone and then with my husband. I am very lucky to get to travel so much, most of the people I know in Italy do not get this chance to see the world. In the US there is so much variety, I love the green and flowery nature and the wild west scenarios, but also the cities. New York is definitely my favorite. There, I started to get into portrait photography: before as a model for portraits since I got years of that kind of experience in Rome; then, I switched to the other side of the camera. My years of experience as a model in Rome help a lot to have an eye for composition, I hope, and to be aware of potential mistakes in perspective and lighting. Furthermore, I understand how you can feel being on the other side of the camera and having an attended result in mind. So, I try to keep my value proposition aware of what I would like to receive too if I hire a professional.
I believe that an importan part of the artistic process of making photography is editing. When I edit a photo, I look at it as a painting, and I aim to enchant reality, not changing it but yet enlightening its natural beauty.
Sometimes I combine these two elements – photography and painting, to create impressionist and expressionist landscapes based on the photos I take. I am always working on improving my editing, to give the pictures in my mind more and more ways to bloom with the beauty of colors and light.
