BEHIND SAGE + WILLOW

Hi, I'm Monica.

Photographer. Storyteller. Professional people at ease.

For the past decade, I've had the privilege of photographing people through some of life's biggest chapters and plenty of beautiful ordinary ones in between.

What I've learned is simple: most people don't need another photograph. They need photographs that actually feel like them.

That's what I'm here to create.

The Sage + Willow Experience
A woman with long wavy brown hair sitting in a black director's chair in front of a white wall, wearing a white blazer, white dress, and a silver watch.
Five women posing on a brown couch in a studio while a woman kneels on the floor taking a photo with a camera. The women are dressed in casual and lingerie outfits, with some sitting and some standing.

MY APPROACH

Photography has always been about people.

I fell in love with photography long before Sage + Willow became what it is today.

Over the years, my camera has taken me into newborn nurseries, family milestones, senior years, professional offices and some of the most meaningful moments in my clients' lives.

But the part I've come to love most isn't simply creating a beautiful photograph.

It's helping someone who walked in nervous relax in front of my camera. It's watching a mother see herself beautifully. It's giving a graduating senior photographs that actually feel like them. It's creating a professional portrait that makes someone stand a little taller.

The photograph matters. How you feel while we're creating it matters too.

EST. 2011

A decade behind the camera changes how you see things.

Experience teaches you when to direct and when to wait.

It teaches you how light changes a face, how the smallest adjustment can transform a pose and how to recognize the moment that happens between the photographs you planned.

After a decade behind the camera, those details have become instinctive.

And that experience allows you to do something much simpler during your session:

Be present.

A woman stands in front of an old wooden door, smiling, holding a woven bag, wearing white ankle boots, a black dress, and a denim vest, with historical plaques on the wall to her left.

BEYOND THE CAMERA

A little more me.

When I'm not behind the camera, I'm usually somewhere in the middle of family life with my husband and our four boys, which means I've learned a thing or two about embracing beautiful chaos.

I have managed to open another part of my creativity as a local spray tan artist. Small details are part of both crafts and those little things matter.

I'm drawn to meaningful details, beautiful spaces, good light and the little moments people tend to overlook until they're gone.

Family is a huge part of why photographs mean so much to me. Time moves ridiculously fast. The people we love change. Kids grow up. Seasons pass.

Photographs give us something to hold onto.

A FEW THINGS I LOVE

Golden light.
Bi-weekly spray tans.
A killer pair of heels.
Family around the table.
Photographs that feel like memories.

LET'S CREATE SOMETHING TOGETHER

Your story looks good from here.

Come exactly as you are. I'll take care of the rest.

Begin your experience