About Me

Hi! I'm Maria!

Welcome to my little page about me. I wrote the most amazing things. Then accidentally deleted it. I think that pretty much sums me up to a "T". If you know me, you're laughing now. If you don't know me, well, it will be fun! I have an assistant, Gracie, who takes care of all the "things" (aka me) so I don't lose something important. She is the person you most likely talk to when you text or message or get an invoice. She's also the person who knows how to make the lights work and where the memory cards are.

I love Jesus. My husband and kids. My four dogs Bo, Missy, Parker and Tobey (like ... a lot!!). And my mama and mother-in-love.

I love coffee, cold and sweet. I need a diet cherry limeade or a diet sprite from Sonic every.single.day.

I shoot with Canon equipment. I have two of the new Canon R5. My favorite lens: the Sigma 105 f/1.4 followed closely by the Canon 50 1.2. My mom shot with Canon cameras. She was a photographer. And now, here I am. I was her "second shooter" before that became a term and back when we shot FILM (gasp). Apparently I couldn't center a photo or shoot a straight image back then. Some things never change. It's because I'm too busy being IN.THE.MOMENT y'all! But ... that's what Photoshop is for anyway. Fun tidbit. My first computer purchase (when I was 18) was to publish Pleasant View's first newspaper, The Pleasant View Advertiser. It was a 20 MEGABYTE (yep) hard drive, with square hard cards for additional memory running the FIRST EVER version of Photoshop. So yeah, I'm that version of Photoshop old. :)

And I like the word y'all. A lot. And Hey, Girl, Hey! And giiiirrrrrlllllll. Even if you are a guy. Because the feeling you get from that word just doesn't work for "guy" or "dude" or "man". And Bless Your Heart. If you're from the South you know what that means. If you aren't, well, bless your heart.

I love hearing and making little kids giggle. Like a.whole.lot! And I love putting periods between three.word.phrases. I don't know why. It makes me happy. And life is really short, so people, Be.Freaking.Happy!!!

I love song lyrics. And random useless knowledge/ Ask Gracie. You probably won't have a session with me without me quoting some obscure song lyric or crazy movie scene or random "old" facto. I can't remember when my memory cards are, but I can remember the lyrics to a Christian hymn from the 50s or a TV jingle from the 70s.

Speaking of the 70s (ADD much?), I love all things 70s: movies, TV shows, songs ... because it was my childhood and like all the "old people" say, times were better then. :)

I love capturing moments that will never happen again, or a smile that everyone else missed. Or ANYTHING that everyone else missed. Or things that shouldn't happen but do. And things that happen that take your breath away -- like proposals, and kisses, and babies being born.

Another fun fact: I want a "look" to my photography. I want to have that "oh that's a Maria Latham image" because they all have the same look. Now days we call that "branding." But my heart is full of crazy ideas and patterns and looks and when I translate an image, it just comes out how it wants to come out. And so, my look ... it just isn't a look at all. Maybe one day.

I like to plan trips and leave to go on them -- and then come home pretty quickly. I love coming home. The in between part, sometimes isn't what I envisioned it would be because I have a great imagination about how things SHOULD be. I've started crossing items off the bucket list. Just last year I saw Elton John, Taylor Swift and went to New York. Next on the bucket list is a drive up (or down) the California coast along with a visit to the redwood forests. My lists are small. My heart is usually pretty content.

I love reading books. I just don't get (take) time to. I love paper books most of all but have a Kindle to snuggle in at night with. And I love having pile of books to look at.

I'm an Enneagram 6. I don't have my wings nailed down yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm a 5. Sixes are "committed, security-oriented types. They are reliable, hard-working, responsible and trustworthy. Excellent troubleshooters, they foresee problems and foster cooperation, but can also become defensive, evasive and anxious -- running on stress while complaining about it." OH YALL!!!!!! This is so me. Every word.

I'd love to have a great photo of me to show you but ... I'm always busy taking the photos. So they are few and far between -- usually captured by Casey or Gracie at a wedding while I'm doing something ridiculous or ridiculously tired (top photo). Having some "real" professional photos is always on my list. I do LOVE the pink wig photo (below) from one of my years as the photographer for a local fundraiser, the "Booby Bolt" for breast cancer! I have no idea where the other one came from. It's multiple cameras ago and I don't even have that flash any more because I use off-camera, so ... it's an "oldie but a goodie". Next time we have a session, grab a selfie with me. I will ALWAYS share those... because you're in them! But maybe not the photo of me from the backside doing crazy things in like ... a creek, or the middle of the road.

Come on, book a session. Let's do something fun. Let's create something lasting.