Meet Kassandra
Hey, hey!
Thanks for stopping by and getting to know me.
A few quick things about me:
I officially have teenagers…send tips and help 🫠
I love nature, hiking, exploring, finding banana slugs, tide pooling for nudibranchs and sea glass.
I happily carry these loves on with my kids. Our favorite— an annual camping trip with 50 of our close friends for our first Summer week at Big Sur Campground. Hiking, hunting for crawdad’s and abalone shells, swimming and cooking over the campfire.
Slowly trying to learn Swedish so I can speak when I visit my boyfriend’s family, but oh my gosh have you tried to speak Swedish?!
Yoga, weights, pilates are my recharge.
Delicious food and traveling to old cities for museums and art or sunning on a warm sandy beach and snorkeling are my favorite vacations.
My passion for photography was ignited by my nature loving, Ansel Adams super fan of a Dad. This man shot film photos of my childhood and all our adventures in Yosemite and Big Sur growing up. There are even a few that pre-date me where he and his friends stand toe to the edge of Halfdome and Glacier Point! Though I get my passion for photos from him, I definitely am not the risk taker he was and you will see when we photograph together my mom side as I don’t let anyone go to close to the edge of the cliffs lol
My mom, a talented actress among many other talents, also had a hand my passion for cameras. She recorded VHS tapes of the many performances my cousins and I forced our family to gather in the livingroom and watch. In one of these memorable shows I decided at 9 years old, our tiny living room would be the ideal stage to show off my newfound cartwheeling skills! One broken toe and cast up to my knee later, the shows in the living room were put on mega hold for me and I began to hop behind the camera instead.
By High School I was enamored with movies and how they were made, this prompted me to take my first photo class at Santa Cruz High School. I loved dramatic, moody black and whites making classmates seem like characters out of Pride and Prejudice. Dressed in ornate costumes and buried in wisteria bushes and ivy walls we scouted near school. My girl friends and I even designed, and shot an entire fashion magazine on sleepover weekend just for fun! Nerd alert… yep I know! I’m proud of it!
As High School graduation approached, 17 year old Kassandra didn’t feel her passions could be a “real” job. Instead of pursuing my passion, I decided to pick the safe path and went to college with the goal of a Business degree. 😅 At one of the biggest party schools in the state…. 20 year old Kassandra soon realized she couldn’t let it go! Thank gawd! and by 24 I had transferred to San Francisco State’s Film and Tv Production program. After struggling in my first college, almost dropping out completely! At this new college I felt absolutely inspired and motivated to learn and grow. Even interning at an amazing non-fiction tv production company Hoff Productions that produced shows for National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and more. I learned the importance of storytelling through imagery, how great lighting can change a picture completely, the power of editing, and how to make non-actors comfortable in front of a camera. I graduated with a 4.0 and was the one of the only graduates in my class to get hired into a real film and tv job. I was in the right place. This was the life I was meant to have, or so I thought. I soon realized being at a production company learning to be a Producer was not for me. The office space wasn’t made for a nature loving, camera nerd from Santa Cruz.
I wanted to be back behind a camera.
At 27 I moved to Los Angeles and by the luck of connections landed with some rad colleagues who brought me along to learn the camera department on some big shows, music videos and commercials. I met Ozzy Osbourne and his whole family, Allan Ball and Ben Whishaw. I worked 15 hour days. I worked weeks at a time and then not at all. I was hazed by the patricharcial men on set, and attempted to be saved by the ones who saw it happening. I was constantly belittled and asked why I wasn’t in front of the camera instead of behind it, misogyny at its finest! It slowly tried to devour me— the hustle life—the “movie biz”, the “if you won’t do it someone else will” mentality…. Part of 27 year old me loved it! It felt cool to be a part of things so famous, recognized for work so many people see. But the part of me who was raised by a brillant, liberal, feminist CEO mother. A woman who taught and practiced ‘People over Profit”, “Caring Capitalism”, and the importance and benefits of including women in all business spaces…THAT young woman was grappling with how often I was the only woman on set… besides the hair and make up ladies or the actresses themselves. How often I was asked to get coffee, or assumed I was the make-up artist or costume designer, that woman was grappling!!! And at that very pivotal moment the universe threw me the biggest curveball of my life—
I was pregnant.
My partner of many years and I had some tough decisions to make. He was a new nurse trying to get hired and I was visibly pregnant trying to get hired. It was tough! We made the call to move to Santa Cruz where our families both were and where he was being offered a job. I was 28 years old. The first of our friends to have a baby. The first of our friends to get married. I didn’t quite understand at that time the pressure on a young woman to figure out how to give up my career for my child and my partner. It sounds harsh but that is the reality of the position I found myself—have my child and give up my passion. At that time it was relatively easy choice as I did truly want my child AND no one would hire me with my baby belly on full display. Thankfully shortly after my son began to move and kick inside me, the minute I felt him for the first time I knew there was no other choice. The universe had made it for me and I have been beyond grateful ever since. I felt a love I have never been able to adequately express with any words that can do it justice. I felt whole and purposeful on a level I didn’t even know was possible. I was a mom. And damn ….I was MEANT to be a mom!
Over the next few years my beautiful children inspired me to again pick up a camera. This time a still camera where I could freeze every stage of their precious ages to hold onto and relive because it was just happening so fast. I wanted to memorize every new face they made, every new emotion as it emerged from their first smile to their first babble of “mama”. I wanted to tell the story of my love for them and their love for me. This blossomed my most true love and new career —photography.
From my images I hope you truly feel the moment. You are transported back to it. I want you laugh at the silly drunk groomsmen dancing to “get low” with Grandma. Feel the emotions and love of a mom and daughter dance as they remember a father gone to soon and embrace each other a little tighter. The braveness of the shy 5 year old flower girl walking down the isle all eyes on her and being encouraged with glee filled claps and cheers. These are your memories and I hope through my camera to freeze them for you, to always have, to relive over and over and look back on forever.
