Photographer Linnea Lenkus knows what its like to be behind the lens and in front of it. As one of Europe's top models, she strutted the runways in Paris and posed for many magazine fashion spreads.
"I always loved being on set, but I didn't actually enjoying modeling," she reveals.
Lenkus decided to get a degree in psychology, and with this better understanding of people, getting behind the camera, as a photographer, was a natural progression.
"I had a good grounding of how images worked," Lenkus says. "Nevertheless, I took every class I could and also worked a lot of different photographic jobs from studio manager to laboratory technician, as well as a stint as a commercial photographer."
Along the way, Lenkus discovered she had an affinity with babies and pregnant women. And while she knows how to capture that special look in all portrait photography, this has become her forté.
"There's something beautiful about newborn babies and there are so many creative things you can to express how a parent feels about a child," Lenkus muses. "When I worked in advertising, I learned that the purpose of every shot was to convey a message, and this can be carried through to portraiture too."
As one of the country's top child photographers - her work has been featured on The Learning Channel as well as on NBC's "Life's Moments" program - she recently opened a photographic studio in Signal Hill.
Lenkus has her own children, as well. The toddler and 3-month-old twins all have been well documented on film.
"They are certainly a handful," she adds with a chuckle. Now, to assist with the increasing workload, she has hired three associate photographers - Gayle Nicholls, Christina Von Messling and Anita Dobie - to come on board.
"Yes, when it comes to capturing children and family scenarios, women seem to have a softer side, which is conveyed in the final work," says Lenkus, explaining the reasoning behind an all-female team.
Talking about sides, Lenkus agrees that everyone has a "good side" when it comes to being captured on film.
"It's the job of a photographer to find it," Lenkus asserts. "Beauty is a different thing to different people. I don't consider typical model looks beautiful. I like to get to know someone, observe and see what makes him or her tick. I think it's my psychology background coming through. But after a while, when I look through the lens, I instinctively know when I've captured the look and feel that I want to portray."
These days, Lenkus still dabbles in actual film but a lot of her studio work is done digitally.
"Digital photography offers so many possibilities," she says. "And final decisions, like whether to make the photograph black and white, color or sepia tones, can be decided after the session."
Lenkus and her associates work by appointment only. But there's still time to book a session and turn a family photograph into a fabulous Christmas card or New Year's greeting.
