As young girl, Carling Stiksma remembers rummaging through her mother’s massive box of photographs, flipping through piles of negatives and double-exposed shots to find the pictures that told her life story, from birth straight through to adulthood. “I’ve always been drawn to photos,” she says. “So many people don’t realize the value of photos until afterwards. I look at photos of my kids and I am blown away, I thought they seemed so old back then, but they were so little. I want families to feel that, to look at their photos have them fill their hearts so that it’s not just a memory, they have something from that time.”
While on maternity leave with her firstborn son, Carling began a motherhood blog, Stiksmama, which inevitably led her to photography. Because she was endlessly creating content using her camera, taking and editing lifestyle imagery, continually striving for better, bolder images, Carling was approached to shoot photos for some friends. After that first session, which she nervously shot free of charge, Carling was hooked on photography and began Carling Stiksma Photo. Shooting lifestyle portraits of young families from marriage to maternity and newborns to families, Carling works hard to deliver for her clients. By maintaining creative control and taking inspiration very seriously, Carling ensures that she gives her clients the quality and style she presents to the world, which they hire her to deliver.
