I was 15 and I remember it like it was yesterday. I photographed a young girl in my friend's neighborhood. She was frolicking near a pond and I immediately had a vision. I wanted to photograph her naturally — nothing traditional, nothing posed. The excitement of capturing her and developing her images in the darkroom sent me over the moon and gave me butterflies as I still get to this day! I knew right from the first image being developed, I wanted to be a photographer. I took photography classes for the rest of my time in high school, went to photography school in college and worked in the photo industry in California for many years before having the confidence to start my own business. Often I get asked how I came up with Bella Luce. In college we had a print competition and I submitted a print and named it "Bella Luce" which means beautiful light in Italian. I won the print competition and when it was time, many many years later, this was how my name came about.

I’ve owned Bella Luce Photography for 16 years and have been in the business for over 25 years. I still wake up every day in love with what I do! Every session is unique and a chance to make someone feel beautiful and special. My heart is in creating as much of a connection as possible leading up to our session together. It is such an important piece to creating our magic together.

Meet Michelle Andrea

the woman behind the lens