About Me

Hi! I'm so glad you're here. My name is Erica, I'm a Houston, TX native who moved to Columbus, OH after spending a few years in the Pacific Northwest. Photography has been in my bones since before I was born. My maternal grandpa was a photographer in a small town in West Michigan, who opened a studio called 'Portraits by Paggeot'. My mom learned everything she could from him, and I grew up appreciating and learning the art of taking pictures from her. As I got older, I took photography classes in high school and learned how to use film. I now use those skills to get clean images in digital photography. I minored in Marketing in college at the University of Houston, and have been finding ways to marry those skills my entire professional life. I realized that my creative passion and education were best used to freelance making marketing materials and website design using product photography! However, being the extrovert that I am, I also love photographing people and building connections with others. So I combined the two to create Barley and Thistle.