I'm a wife to my best friend, a mother to one son who is my greatest achievement and grandmother to two beautiful little girls who are my joy! I was a professional portrait photographer for 20+ years and had a portrait studio for 15 of those years. I loved photographing babies and high school seniors the most.  When the industry changed I didn't like the direction it was going so I decided to get out. I am now totally retired from people photography (except my grand daughters of course, but that is for me and not for pay). Now all my photographic attention is focused on the great outdoors and wildlife.

Currently I live in Florida, I am originally from Georgia. I love the landscape and wildlife that is in this beautiful state.  There are so many cool birds here and photographing them has become one of the things that I enjoy most. This is crazy to most people that know me because I have had a fear of birds my whole life. Somehow when I am behind the camera most of that fear goes away and it is more important to get the shot than to give in to my fear. My very favorite thing in the world to do is travel and explore the great outdoors.

Dogs are also a big part of my life. We have 3 right now, 2 Italian Greyhounds and 1 pound puppy (mutt is such an ugly word). My first IG was Bruno and he was my doggie soulmate He has been gone since March 2015 and I miss him everyday. Bazil is our youngest and he is like a little boy human, he cracks us up and keeps us on our toes. If I could I would have many more dogs. I always say if I ever win the lottery I want to have a big ranch and house senior dogs (a dog nursing home) and all sorts of other rescue dogs. 

This blog is to chronicle my life starting at 50. I hope that you will enjoy my photography, my travels and my occasional thoughts or rants.

                                                                                                   Instagram Feed from this_is_rika