ABOUT

It all began in 2001; fresh out of Honker country (i.e., Medicine Lake, Montana), I attended Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, majoring in photographic communications. There, I learned about film photography using my newly purchased Canon EOS Rebel 35mm film camera. In addition, I learned about working in a darkroom; the importance of knowing camera settings; how much more creative photographs could be outside of automatic settings; website design; and how Photoshop was changing the world.

In 2003, digital cameras began to take off. I must have been a good girl that year because Santa brought me a brand-new Canon EOS Digital Rebel offering 6.3 megapixels (fast forward to my current camera, the Canon R5 Mark II, which offers 45 megapixels)! This was mind-blowing, intimidating, and exciting all at once! Thankfully, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks offered digital photography courses, and I jumped on the opportunity.

Life, as it tends to do, took me on a winding path. I started a family before finishing my degree, but my passion for photography never faded (even if it did become a rather expensive hobby). Eventually, I graduated from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Armed with my degree, I became a certified paralegal—a role I proudly held for years.

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While raising my family, I discovered a new set of passions—cooking, barbecuing, and canning. I always forgot to write anything down, so each dish became a fresh adventure, guided by my taste buds and a dash of daring.  I was a proud taster-and-dumper who struggled to follow a recipe! During our years in Minnesota, surrounded by trees, my husband and I began making our own maple syrup—a hobby that soon spiraled into crafting our own bacon. As avid hunters, processing our own meat became a cherished tradition. It’s taken years of experimentation to perfect our recipes for meat sticks, jerky, bacon, pickles, and more.

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Returning to Montana, I came to a pivotal realization: my true calling lived at the crossroads of art and business. In 2023, I took a leap of faith and founded Land of Erin Dell, LLC—a venture that would eventually let me embrace every passion under one roof. The name was born from my desire to weave together the many threads of my interests, creating a place where I could truly be myself. While adding the cooking side to Land of Erin Dell has felt a bit daunting, I’m thrilled to finally start developing a plan to bring this dream to life (more to come)!

On a more personal level, I'm one of five girls in my family, the mother to two boys, and the auntie to many nieces and nephews—all of whom have been willing and excellent subjects throughout the years with all my photography ideas. It's been rewarding having such a supportive family and community.