In early 2024, a “New Order” notification arrived in my email inbox that perked my interest. “Wow, this family is from Alaska. And look at that, they live quite close to where I visited back in 2013!” I wrote back to ask if they knew any of the people and places I had gotten to know while I was there and . . . we’ve been in touch ever since.
As a student photographer, Leanne has worked hard at her photography and excelled to the point of getting her photos printed in her own 2026 Calendar (more about that below). And as the winner of last month’s photo assignment, I now have the privilege of introducing her and and some of her beautiful work to you in today’s blog post! Though I’ve never met Leanne or her family in person, I feel like I’ve known them forever, striving together to serve and glorify the Lord in our respective corners of the globe.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I love Alaska’s incredible wild beauty, and wildlife—it’s just like no other place and I am very proud to call it my home! My family is from all over, but I was born in South America and then lived for quite awhile in Canada before we moved to Alaska. Like I said . . . Alaska has so many beautiful things to capture!
One of my favorite things to photograph are the beautiful wildflowers and plants—the landscape and mountains are so gorgeous—and the wildlife is just spectacular! It’s so much fun to put a picture of a moose that you took in your front yard into a calendar!
I have been taking pictures for quite a while. I think I got my first very cheap Kodak point and shoot ten years ago, but I only got a DSLR a little over a year ago and since then I have done a lot more photography.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to take pictures of, and why?
I’ve liked taking pictures of flowers for a very long time—that’s really one of the places photography started for me! I would often borrow my mom’s phone or in later years, my brother’s nice camera, and go run out and photograph the freshly bloomed lilies or whatever flowers I found outside our door!
They’re still one of my favorite things to photograph, along with things like candid moments, birds, and wildlife. I especially enjoy capturing little details and special moments—presenting little gems that would’ve been left unnoticed, but I have grown greatly in my liking for landscape recently! I am also excited to get into a little more portrait photography. 🙂
Q: What’s one of your favorite things about learning photography with Lenspiration?
I really, really love the clean, Christian atmosphere and the abundance of knowledge and skill put into all the curriculum and also the wonderful photographer community! It’s so neat to have a space to share and be encouraged by like-minded photographers! I always enjoy James’ weekly blog posts with practical and spiritual lessons combined, as well.
Q: Which Lenspiration course has been your favorite to go through?
I have mainly gone through the Foundations of Photography course, but I also really enjoyed the bit of the Mastering Composition course that I’ve gotten to do!
Q: What do you enjoy about shooting photo assignments? What do you find challenging?
I love that I can be filling someone else’s need for a photo and growing in my own photography skills at the same time! I find it most challenging when we have multi-person model request for an assignment . . . it can be a bit of a challenge to find people, and it also takes a lot more work and coordination than still life or even a one person model assignment.
Q: If you could talk to someone else who’s just starting in their photography journey, what would you tell them?
Remember to enjoy the process! It can be easy to want our photos to be perfect . . . but it’s more important to have fun than to stress out because we don’t see perfection in every shot!
Q: What’s an area of photography that you’ve been growing in during the past few months?
Landscape has really grown on me and I have grown in it, recently! I was very inspired by a composition video that accompanied a recent assignment and have just found myself reaching for my wide lens and spending (and enjoying!) more time tweaking things to get an inspiring landscape photo.
Q: Let’s talk about the “Sweet as Honey” assignment. What was your favorite aspect of this assignment, and the hardest aspect?
The macro and flower aspects are both something I really enjoyed. It was a pretty easy and fun assignment because of the nature aspect I chose to shoot!
Q: What was your favorite photo submission from this assignment, and why?
I really like this one because of the neat moment behind it—I was taking photos and following a butterfly around with this assignment in the back of my head and then it just so happened that a bee landed right next to it! I thought it amplified the thought of the sweetness with there being more than one creature drinking in nectar.
Q: Before you go, is there anything else you’d like to share?
I’m passionate for sharing beauty and joy through my photography and desire to be a voice for God and a little bit of refreshing in this busy, busy world! If you’d like to see more photography and other creative things that I do, I’d be happy to have you follow me on Instagram!
Thank you for sharing, Leanne! I truly enjoyed looking at the photos you submitted for this blog post. I have seen many of your photos through the coaching webinars and assignments, but almost all the photos you shared here I hadn’t seen before! You definitely have an eye for photography, and I think it’s neat that you’ve been inspired to do a little more with landscapes recently. Your own photos inspire me to slow down and look for the closeup shots!
I’m grateful you have enjoyed your time as a student photographer here at Lenspiration. May your love for God and His Word grow and flourish just like your love for photography. Looking forward to seeing more beautiful photos from wild Alaska in the future!
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