Hi, I'm Sarah, one of ShutterHappy's owners and the original founder. I started ShutterHappy from the ground up in July 2010.
I was raised in front of a camera and at a very early age had a camera in my hand. I believe that family photos are not a privilege to be given only to the wealthy. Everyone should have affordable family portraits! For me, photography is a way to capture the memories that we too easily forget.
My mother passed away very unexpectedly at the age of only 29. I was only 8 and photos were all I had of my mother. I have no real memories of her or my life with her. I had a very hard childhood after she died. I was raised by my father and very evil step-mother. I left home at 15 and have lived on my own since I was 16. Today, I believe that everyone needs to capture every milestone of their lives not only to cherish today, but to be cherished by those we leave behind when we're no longer here. When I'm gone, wether that's tomorrow or decades from now, I want my kids to have those tangible memories of my life with them. I want them to know my love for them. I am committed to making that happen for everyone, affordably!
Today, I am a very proud mother of four incredible boys and one beautiful little girl. I am the wife to one amazing husband (Ryan) who understands that I don't take no for an answer and I want all the things in life. Ryan, is a co-owner and office manager of ShutterHappy. He handles a good portion of the office work including but certainly not limited to answering emails and Facebook messages.
I am a small town country girl born and raised in tiny tiny tiny (did I mention tiny) towns in Montana. I moved to Idaho in 1999 and haven't looked back. Although the saying is true; "you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl". So after marrying Ryan (born and raised in Boise, Idaho), I just couldn't handle living in the City anymore, so we now live near Idaho City, which is actually much larger than where I grew up, if you can believe that. We love the outdoors. Camping, hiking, all things mountains, and wildlife. And we have a terrible travel addiction! We want to see all the things!
Ryan and I were married in a very private ceremony (just the two of us) on Oahu, Hawaii. Our dream is to retire there.
In 2020, after 10 years of growing ShutterHappy into the nationally known company it is today, I sold half of the company to Christy Cooper. This gave me some much needed time with my family and the ability to focus on my specialty and passion; birth photography. I now primarily photograph births while Christy takes on the families and other session types.