Throughout her life Claire has always been fascinated by photography and remembers taking a small Kodak 110 instamatic on a trip to Europe in college. Her cameras changed to more advanced SLRs but all the while she was shooting in auto or program mode because apertures were too confusing! She made the leap to manual exposure after she attended a photo workshop with Bill and Linda Lane where the mystery of apertures and shutter speeds was unlocked and it all started making sense!
She now shoots professionally capturing weddings, corporate events, family portraits, and head shots but her true love is nature and wildlife photography. Just ask her about her Bluebirds!!!
Claire is enthralled with astrophotography and loves shooting the moon, lunar and solar eclipses, comets, the planets and the Milky Way. She witnessed and photographed her first Total Solar Eclipse in 2017 and found the experience very moving and emotional.
Claire is a musician by education, having a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from James Madison University. She taught music for 5 years at O’Connell HS in the 80’s and then moved onto a career in the Federal Government as a Copyright Examiner for the Performing Arts, a rare government job which at the time, required a music degree. She is retired now (after a 31 year career there) and has more time to enjoy her photography.