Carly Carlson Photography

Hey there, I'm Carly!

And I have been taking pretty pictures since 2007.

I specialize in high school senior portraits. I dabble in night photography, especially scenes around my beloved hometown of Baker City.

My goal for every session is to tell your story; authentically and beautifully, you. Through natural light and settings that suit your personality, I'm aim to convey what's most important to you. Telling your story is the best part of being a photographer for me.

I'm based in Baker City, Oregon, and I love to travel!

The best way to reach me, currently, is through my Instagram @CarlyCarlsonArt

*Photo by Lisa Grigg Photography

And I think I'm an artist.

In August of 2023, I took my first ceramics class at The Crossroads Arts Center. Exploring this new medium at the age of 36 opened my eyes to the dormant creator inside of myself that I had long ignored. This was the first time I had ever considered that I might be an artist. Not in the "I create art" sense but deep down in my soul, at the core of my being, I am an artist. The way I live and consume and create... I had somehow lost touch of this intrinsic identity. Maybe it was the commodifying of portraiture that did it, or maybe I had never fully allowed myself to say out loud "I'm an artist" and saying I'm a photographer was hard enough. But... Photography had become a job, not an expression of myself, and that creates a perfect playground for burnout to take root.

In a way, ceramics led me back to the artistry and creativity that drew me to photography in the first place and it has fulfilled me in a way that no other artform has up to this point. It unlocked a part of me that I had not fostered in many years. I continue to throw regularly and have recently tried my hand at sculpture. It's a wonderful thing to be "bad" at. It's freed me from many of my perfectionist tendencies and has allowed me to, in the famous words of Ms. Frizzle, "take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" And that's really spilled over into other areas of my life in unexpected ways.

An artist and a writer.

This old WordPress blog has been with me for a couple of decades now, as wild as that is to say. In a world driven by algorithms and echo chambers and divisive rage baits and mindless scrolling, I'm finding myself drawn to slower, organic content. And I happen to own this corner of the internet, there are no mods or admins or AI bots to falsely flag my content here... I find that incredibly refreshing and simultaneously nostalgic. I intend to blog here as I did in the early 2000s and I may not even tell anyone I'm doing it! Isn't that fun? If you found this, you found a little secret we get to share, now. Thanks for being here, I hope you'll join me as we engage with slower content once again!