Hi! I'm Serena! A little bit fun, a little bit odd, all wrapped up into mint chocolate chip icecream. So I’m that girl. You know, that disney princess style hopeless romantic. The one who bawls her eyes out at a theater, reads way too many fantasy style romance novels, and believes that faeries really did steal your car keys and shove them under the bed.
I'm an artist and fantasy photographer. I believe that every person has a soulmate and that every woman is downright gorgeous and deserves to see it, know it and embrace it. I absolutely love my job. It’s the only job where I can be the artist I am while getting to meet and make amazing new friends, experience love over and over, and see stress and self-doubt melt right off all while getting to edit in my PJs with my fur babies on my lap and my daughter running around like a toddler does.
I believe in love. Euphoric, blissful, crazy, stupid, and sometimes stubborn love. I believe that photographs capture the best parts of ourselves, the little things everyone else sees but we always seem to miss in ourselves. They are timeless and forever. They are the living, breathing documents of who we are and who we will be to the loved ones we know and the ones we never get to meet after we are gone. They remind you of just how beautiful you are inside and why you fell in love in the first place.
I know how important photos are. My parents didn’t hire a professional photographer for their wedding. They had a cousin photograph it — and now all I have is a single print that they made from a polaroid another family member took. On the other hand, while searching through old albums, I found two women in bathing suits doing pinup poses. My grandmother comes up to me, covers her mouth and says “Ooooo, If my parents found out!!!” and we giggled at how scandalous she made it seem as I enjoyed her pinup photos (in fully covered bathing suits).
Photography is more than just a job to me — it’s about meeting people and making connections. I don’t just want to be another vendor you check off your list - I want to get to know your story. I want to make sure that we click as people (when I'm comfortable I can be a bit of a talkative goofball).
My goal is to have fun and create a relaxed, stress-free day where we can capture memories and produce beautiful handcrafted story-telling products that will last a lifetime. When you hire my studio, you will always get me as your main photographer, so the quality of images you see is what you will get!
I spend my free time (what little I have, lol!) reading books, writing my YA Fantasy Novel series, or playing video games with the love of my life! (Nerd alert. See next page for Fun Facts.) I also do medieval reenactment with the SCA and have fun at an incredible medieval festival once a year, (Pennsic!) I have a habit of dragging everyone I know there at some point (And then they never stop going.. mwahaha.) I'm so excited to share these important moments in your life! Thanks for stopping by, I can't wait to meet you!
1. I'm a toddler mom of a wonderful little girl and a fur-mommy of 2 Border collie/ Husky pups and 3 cats. All are rescues.
2. My idea of date-night is either popcorn and a movie by the fireplace, or a bottle of whisky and an MMORPG (I Primarily play Final Fantasy 14 right now)
3. I dance around the house when no one is looking
4. I really like Pepsi. But Pepsi is bad. So tea. I like tea.
5. My favorite thing to do on my free time is read and write. I'm writing a Fantasy Romance series right now, and am being mentored by the incredible Melissa Marr!
6. Alice in Wonderland. The End.
7. I hate the cereal at the bottom of the box
8. I love anything lace, sparkly, polka dot, frilly or generally girly.
9. I am itty bitty. I mean tiny. Like 5'3.
10. I love Anime and manga. Ols-school Chobits is my favorite.
11. My favorite TV shows are typically some sort of Sci fi/Fantasy: Ex:Firefly, Battle Star Galactica, Westworld, Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time, etc. I rarely have time to watch them.
12. I dislike things that make me sad. There is enough of that in the world. I like happy good feels.
I grew up in a small town in South Jersey. I was always an artist, taking private art classes at a local art studio, singing in chorus, doing medieval reenactment with an organization called the SCA, learning belly dancing, etc. I graduated high school with two diplomas, my normal academic, and one for an acting academy I attended for 4 years. I started doing photography in middle school, my friends and I “Played dress up” and took photos with throw away cameras. As I got into theater, my sets began to grow and I started doing hair, makeup, and styling as well. In 2004-2005, I received my first professional digital SLR camera, set it to manual and self taught myself from there. At 16 I started modeling for photographers and learning as much as I could about high end lighting, posing, retouching and makeup.
In college I was Vice President of the Antonelli Chapter of the Student Photographic Society (SPS). 2008 I graduated Valedictorian of my class from Antonelli Institute, being the first student to earn every award they offered upon graduation, except Best of Show in their Print competition, beaten only by a photograph I modeled for. I became a member of the Professional Photographer’s of America (PPA) and The Guild of Professional Photographer’s of Delaware Valley (GPPDV).
In 2010, I had the honor of being labeled “One of the top ten up-and-coming studios” by Professional Photographer Magazine, speaking at PPA’s National Conference in San Antonio Texas for nearly 1000 photographers. By the age of 23, I had won enough awards in PPA’s National Print competition to be awarded their Master Photographer Degree, the youngest in the tri-state area. I spent a few years running the GPPDV Print competition as Chair person, Judging at PPA print competitions and teaching workshops educating photographers before I pulled back to focus on my family and my clients. In 2018, I went back to school at Rizzieri Aveda for my cosmetology degree where I learned hair, makeup, and sanitization! I am always continuing to grow as an artist, gaining new knowledge, submitting for publications in books, magazines, and blogs, and just trying to inevitably get through this whole thing we call life.
My favorite thing to do together for vacation is go to Pennsic! (An event held by the Society of Creative Anacronisms). A living history event (and kind of like a fun festival / ren faire meets burning man) type of thing. I grew up bringing history to life at events and schools and getting to try out things like fencing, archery, and thrown weapons, sewing, drumming, chainmail making, and much much more.
I have adopted many many furbabies over the years, but right now I have 2 dog children, Izzy (Short for Isabella) and Zoey, and 3 cat children (Snow, Cali, and Tiger) that I love dearly.
I guess you could call Dru working as our assistant a happy accident. I had always dreamed of having a family business, but never really expected everyone to jump on board. A few years ago I had a very challenging wedding where I knew I would need an assistant to help with moving gear, lighting, etc, but everyone I typically hired was already busy for the day. As I was stressing having dinner with my family the night before, my brother asked if there was anything he could do to help. He came over to the studio and in one evening he had every piece of my gear memorized and was ready to go the next day. Now I have my own personal 6'2 mobile light stand and I couldn't be happier. (All jokes aside, I love working with my brother. He really is the best assistant and photographer in training I could ask for.)
1. I love fixing computers
2. Most people would cringe if they saw how many game hours I've clocked
3. I eat like a kid. No Sauce, Chicken tenders and fries are the best.
4. I was once asked to play Halo competitively
5. I also do medieval reenactment
6. I have a large collection of war hammer models & I DM DnD games
7. My Favorite movies is A knight's Tale
8. My Favorite Video game is Final Fantasy 8
9. I enjoy watching Anime, My favorites are .Hack, Steinsgate & Lain
10. I have a derpy cat named Peaches that doesn't know how to cat.
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