My Background

So, you’re a photographer- you went to art school? Nope! I’m actually an environmental engineer. But I also need a creative outlet. I’ve been behind a camera for what feels like forever – from my first kid’s camera, to a point-and-shoot with a really nice zoom lens (10th grade), to an entry level DSLR (sophomore year of college), to a more powerful DSLR (my first year of working), to my current mirrorless DSLR which I love!

Why Ember?

Well, there are a couple of reasons! I thought Ember would be easier to spell (and say!) than my last name, Garbenis. Also, I couldn’t do this without my husband’s support, Bernard. So, we combined the beginning of my name with the beginning of his name, and that’s how Ember came about. And the name stuck!

My Approach

When choosing a photographer, it is essential to like both the composition and styling of the images, but also the editing style. My aim is to create images that are true-to-life, without excessive editing. I’ll adjust brightness, contrast, and color balance, but not much else. On rare occasions I do use Photoshop to remove elements from photos, as the example below shows – the essence of the photo has not changed, but the distraction has been removed.