About Trude

Thank you for stopping by! You’re probably wondering how I pronounce my name, and that’s okay – think of it like True-dah.

I clearly remember cherishing a little purple plastic album of photos our team mom gave to each of us at the end of my first (and only) season of girls’ basketball. I was maybe seven years old, and my love of photos has only grown from there. When I was in high school, I begged my dad to teach me the magic of his old Nikon FM, which is how I learned to meter light the good ol’ fashioned way. Something about that shutter sound is just so irresistible! It’s been a love affair ever since.

Some things you should probably know about me:

• My grandmother is my favorite photographer and my inspiration.
• I’m fiercely proud of my Norwegian heritage and dual citizenship – I was born in Norway and moved to SoCal when I was five. I visit family there as often as possible.
• I wear glasses because I’ve been a bookworm since before I knew how to read.
• Indy wins over Han (but only because my degree is in history…and I love the hat).
• I like hugging. Hugging’s my favorite.
• I change nail polish as often as Kate changes hair color in Eternal Sunshine.
• I have a really loud laugh. I apologize in advance for any burst eardrums.
• I use the word awesome about 517 times a day.

I am also a proud member of HeARTs Speak, an organization that helps connect artists and shelters in order to help break down the myth that animals from Rescues and Shelters are somehow inferior.

And I am so, so thrilled to announce that I am now a member of I Picture Hope, an international network of photographers who offer FREE photo sessions to women fighting or surviving breast cancer. While I haven’t lost a loved one to breast cancer, there has been a prevalence of other types of cancer on both sides of my family and this is my way of honoring their memories in the best way I know how.

So let’s chat! You can get in touch with my by clicking the “Contact” link on the ribbon bar above.

{Photos of me by Nancy Orozco.}

Me and Dante

I adopted my Italian Greyhound, Dante, from the Seal Beach Animal Care Center in March of 2008. He’s the Best Snuggler Ever! He enjoys trips to the dog beach, French fries and squeaking his squeaky balls. He’ll be six in March – my baby is growing up! Nicknames include Yodante, because he can wrap himself up in a blanket so that only his head is showing and he looks like a Jedi master.

I now repay the shelter for this incredible gift by taking portraits of their adoptables for their website. I truly can’t imagine life without him and he’s what inspired me to do petography in the first place.

Dante is famous on the web.We’ve been featured on Phetched.com and are proud members of the R.O.A.R. Squad (Rescue Owners Are Rockin’). He and I were also published in the December 2011 issue of Dog Fancy!

{Photos of us by Jen Disney.}