My Name is Holly Thugut.  I have always loved photography, even before I knew exactly what it meant.  I got my first camera when I was five, and through the next 10 years or so went through many cameras.  Some of these camera's met rather untimely demises, one of which got slammed against a brick wall repeatedly when the auto focus died... I was 14.  Amazingly, the brick wall could not completely destroy the camera, and it continued taking pictures for another two years, but you never knew which pictures would come out in focus and which wouldn't... it became exciting when I got the film developed to see what would, and would not be in focus.
My first photography class was when I was in high school, and I never looked back.  I worked in film and digital media, and eventually studio settings.  While I enjoy all types of photography, my favorite has always been portraiture, which is what lead me to work in two different portrait studios.