I started photography in 2013 while living in Southern California. I later moved my business to coastal North Carolina, and then to the backboard, where I spent nearly a decade enjoying being a mom and working out the tiny kinks of life. During that time, I lived a lot of life — full of lessons, laughter, love, loss, and growth — and learned a lot about who I am and what matters most.
Finding myself in the role of a single mom, I was inspired to go back to college. Over the ten years it took me to finally graduate, I became a wife again and the proud mom of my OG three, my two bonus kids, and the little man who blended us all together. In December 2025, I graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Social & Behavioral Studies. That decade of college life taught me so much about life, love, loss, and myself — and along the way I realized that a traditional 9-to-5 isn’t for me. My passion lies in photography, where I get to capture the moments that families and couples will treasure forever.
Photography allows me to embrace the joys of life, share those moments with others, build connections that can’t be undone, and feel happiness in every person I meet. It also gives me the space to embrace my own family, watch my children grow, and never miss the small moments I will never get back as they spread their wings.
Who is Tara?
Meaning of Portrait Den Photography
The name Portrait Den comes from one of my favorite places in the world — my grandparents’ farm in Virginia. I can still hear dogs barking in the distance, smell the old sheets on pull-out couches, and hear John Wayne playing in the dark living room right before the clock (obnoxiously) dinged twelve times at midnight. Sunlight streaming through the windows, catching dust floating in the air. The laughter of cousins and my grandparents everywhere, and the freedom of running up and down their dirt driveway — what we called “the lane.”
That’s the feeling I hope to bring to my photography. I want your images to feel like home when you look back — to remember the moment, the laughter, the emotions, and the tiny details that slip away if you’re not paying attention. If I can give you even a fraction of the warmth and love I feel when I think of my grandparents’ den, then I’m doing exactly what I was meant to do.
To me, that den holds more time and truth than anywhere else in the world. It’s a tiny corner of my soul I return to when the days feel like they’re moving too fast. It’s my hope that my photography can give you that same comfort and feeling, many years down the lane.