Welcome, I’m Annemarie

I’m a photographer, a designer, and depending on the day — the person who asks the question that finally makes everything click into place.
Most people arrive with a fairly clear feeling about what they want, and a much fuzzier idea of how to describe it.

They know they want their brand to feel more like them. They’re just not sure what that looks like yet or whether they’re creative enough, photogenic enough, or clear enough to pull it off. They are. They just need someone to ask the right questions.

That’s where I come in. I’ve spent the better part of 30 years learning how to listen to what a business needs to say — and then finding the most honest, considered way to say it visually. Some of that listening happens in a studio with a camera. Some of it happens at a desk with a sketchbook. Occasionally both, in the same afternoon.

What they think they need and what they really need are often two different things. My job is to hear the difference — and never oversell the gap.

I studied design at ACAD, where I discovered gum bichromate printing and a deep love for building things in layers, slowly, with intention. That philosophy hasn’t left me. It runs through every shoot, every brand kit, every curated collection in the studio. Good visual brands aren’t built in a weekend. They’re built the way anything lasting is built — carefully, thoughtfully, one considered decision at a time.

When I’m not behind the camera or the sketchbook, I’m off-grid on 12 acres near Whitefish Lake in Eastern Ontario, building a home with my husband, tending an orchard, and writing a personal blog series called Letters from the Forest. The same instinct that makes me love homesteading — build well, build slowly, build for the long term — is the same one I bring to every client.

It’s not as hard as you think. I promise. Let’s figure out where to start.

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“I pay attention to trends, but I’ve never let them be the loudest voice in the room. What I create is designed to feel current without chasing what’s passing.”

Magnolia Sage Studio

In 2020 I launched something I’d been passively building since about 2015 — a studio resource for entrepreneurs who needed beautiful, cohesive visuals but weren’t ready for, or didn’t need, a full brand shoot.

What began as collections of boutique stock photography has grown into a full creative studio. Magnolia Sage Studio now includes curated collections, Canva templates, the Everyday Edit visual capsules, and the Content Collective membership — everything a modern entrepreneur needs to show up visually, consistently, and without starting from scratch every time.

It’s built on the same philosophy as everything else I do. Slowly, carefully, in layers. Designed to last.

I pay attention to trends — but I’ve never let them be the loudest voice in the room. What I create is designed to feel current without chasing the moment.

shop the Library →

How I use ‘AI’

A fair question these days, so here’s the honest answer.

Every photograph I sell is one I captured. Real people, real light, real fabric that somebody actually ironed. Nothing generated, ever.

Retouching is a different conversation, and worth having properly. I use the AI masking and noise tools in Lightroom and Photoshop constantly and they’re marvellous — they literally save me hours.

But let’s be clear about what they are. Photographers have been retouching since long before any of this: pencil worked directly onto glass negatives, airbrushes in studio use from the 1880s, entire careers spent dodging and burning under a darkroom enlarger. The tools got faster. The job didn’t change. It’s still me deciding what to lift, what to soften, and where the eye should land — the same judgement, made in rather less time.

What I won’t do is generate an image, or put something into a frame that wasn’t in front of the camera. That isn’t retouching. That’s invention, and that’s a different thing entirely.

Now, the words. I use AI the way I’d use a good editor: tidying my drafts, turning voice memos and half-legible notes into something readable, thinking through a plan, and a fair amount of dull sorting that nobody would want to watch. The thinking is mine, the opinions are mine, and I overrule it constantly. If it writes something I wouldn’t say out loud, it doesn’t go out.

That’s the line. Real photographs, my own voice, and a tool that helps me get there a bit faster.

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If you’ve read this far

Have questions or a visual project that needs exploring — I’d love to connect.
let’s talk →