Hi! I’m Laila and I believe in magic. I don’t shy away from the unexpected. I love with all my heart, eat with my eyes, and have an unquenchable thirst for art in paint and human form. I welcome creative challenges, and strive to understand and really SEE my people. I think the most important thing in life is the time we spend with the ones we spend time with.
When it comes to photographing my people I have one goal. I want to capture images that tell WHO you are, not just what you look like. I believe in moments over poses, and that life should be FUN above pretty much all else. I mean, we have one precious life to live, what’s the point if we are not enjoying it.
Once you meet me, you will see that I’m an open book and do best in person rather than sitting in front of a computer screen writing about myself. If you are curious about my background, strap yourself in for one convoluted tale. It goes back to childhood, but I’ll spare you those details and skip ahead to high school briefly then take it from there. It really is hard to draw the line between your personal life and professional background when your work is intricately a part of everything you do, live, and believe in. My job is to take photos, yes, but my real work is turning the mirror so people can see, with new eyes, how truly beautiful they are.
Hi! I’m Laila and I believe in magic. I don’t shy away from the unexpected. I love with all my heart, eat with my eyes, and have an unquenchable thirst for art in paint and human form. I welcome creative challenges, and strive to understand and really SEE my people. I think the most important thing in life is the time we spend with the ones we spend time with.
When it comes to photographing my people I have one goal. I want to capture images that tell WHO you are, not just what you look like. I believe in moments over poses, and that life should be FUN above pretty much all else. I mean, we have one precious life to live, what’s the point if we are not enjoying it.
Once you meet me, you will see that I’m an open book and do best in person rather than sitting in front of a computer screen writing about myself. If you are curious about my background, strap yourself in for one convoluted tale. It goes back to childhood, but I’ll spare you those details and skip ahead to high school briefly then take it from there. It really is hard to draw the line between your personal life and professional background when your work is intricately a part of everything you do, live, and believe in. My job is to take photos, yes, but my real work is turning the mirror so people can see, with new eyes, how truly beautiful they are.
Okay so you’ve come here to learn more about me, your photog.
Although I would much rather focus on you,
I get why you would want to know a little more about the lady behind the lens.
Anyone can snap a pic...
I want to create images that capture who you are, not just what you look like.
I knew if I wanted it, I had to make it happen myself. So I hit the books, got the scholarships, went to college, got the degrees - a bachelors from Kalamazoo College and a Masters in Medical Sciences from Loyola University in Chicago. Then I packed my bags and headed off to Medical School. Medicine was the easy route for me - far less scary than building something on my own or venturing out into a field with job titles I had no idea about. I dropped out after two years. That was the best decision of my life because it led me to meet the love of my life, my now husband, Rich. It also allowed me to explore my true passion, art. I began taking photos so that I could use them as reference images for my paintings. My boyfriend, now husband, got me a “real” camera one year and I was hooked.
I’m telling you this because it describes something about my character that is unchanged to this day. I was determined to create and live a life I loved based on my own terms.
I was born to a Kuwaiti dad and a mom from small-town-Northern-Michigan. I grew up in Kuwait, surrounded by extended family - lots and lots of cousins, aunts, and basically everyone was an uncle. I lived through and escaped the first Gulf War, moved to Hawaii briefly, then returned to Kuwait where we lived until I was a teenager. When I was sixteen, my parents separated. Myself and my brothers stayed in the US with my mom. We moved to Northern Michigan with the money in our pockets; $400 cash. I went through some culture shock, unbeknownst to my adolescent self at the time, and diligently began researching scholarships so that I could pay for college. I went to the library after school everyday, and scoured the internet and books looking for and applying to every single scholarship program I could find. I even applied and was awarded the SAM WALTON (Walmart) Scholarship.
my journey
I'm living my best life photographing Mamas, families, and high school seniors AND helping other photographers build businesses of their dreams.
today
I began photographing people and it’s fair to say the rest is history.
2014
Went full time as a photographer (I was a molecular biologist, and cancer researcher at the time) in 2013
2013
I incorporated my business in 2012
2012
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