First of all, thank you SO much for coming to my website and specifically to this page - I appreciate that you are interested in learning more about me!! My name is Mary Claire (and yes, it's both names, sorry), but plenty of people just call me MC. I have been photographing weddings, portraits, & lifestyle sessions in lovely southern California for a whole decade now! I grew up in Orange County, went to CSUF to study photojournalism, and now live in the South Bay of LA with my husband Matt and our furry babies, Theo and Layla. Some of the things I love include (but are not limited to):
☆ humans. my greatest passion in life is people... classic ESFJ/Enneagram 7. I absolutely love asking questions, however big or small, and learning more about the people I get to serve and love. over the years, I have actually found the practice of photography to be one of the greatest studies on relationships, human interaction, and interpersonal communication.
☆astrology. I like to consider myself a pretty decent amateur astrologer; when I take an interest in something, I really take an interest, so I've studied the art of reading charts and interpreting transits for the past 5 years, simply as an additional tool for self-discovery and understanding. bonus points if you include your zodiac signs in your inquiry!
☆dogs. specifically, big dogs. even more specifically, golden retrievers. let's talk about it.
☆traveling. my work has taken me across the world, and I'm always looking forward to the next adventure (aka: YES I will travel for your wedding, get in touch!!!)
☆coffee. i'm really so sorry to the snobs out there but i'm embracing my millenial truth and confessing my love for a starbucks iced caramel macchiato, upside down.
☆making friends & collecting memories. WHICH IS WHY YOU ARE HERE, NO?! it would be my honor to befriend you and capture your essence to preserve forever. ♡
photos above by Jes Workman, who graciously offered the temporary use of her camera on my wedding day, because she understands how foreign it feels to be without one at a wedding, even if it is your own ♡
I love art, and I love people, so becoming a visual journalist was really the only option for me. It makes a lot of sense, after all. I harbor a relentless desire to photograph faces, stories, and lives, as they are, in the moment. I am obsessed with capturing and preserving the perfectly imperfect essence of humans, in all their flawed, authentic glory, not to neatly summarize them in a series of pretty pictures, but to continue to do my part in helping to build upon and add to these stories. That is the greatest thing about human beings after all; we are never finished.