Giving Back: I'm a member of two non-profit photography groups: "Celebrating Adoption", which gives adoptive parents a free photo session and a free set of photography proofs, along with a 15% discount off additional portraits, and "A Family For Every Child" which uses professional photographers to photograph foster children to increase their chance of adoption. I am also personally committed to photographing famlies with chronically ill children (without charge). Contact me if you would like more information. Spread the word! I love to give.
I'm a member of PPA and PPW - great organizations. Every year I attend workshops and seminars to learn how to be the best photographer I can be.
I'm a Certified Professional Photographer (very cool - only 23 of us in Washington, and 3% of photographers nationwide!)
Karen Mullen began taking photographs while an exchange student in Germany. She studied photography and writing at the University of Missouri and received a Bachelor of Journalism.
Karen and her late husband Leo were married in 1983. An early pregnancy changed Karen's career plans: she intended to work for a newspaper, as Leo did, but had a firm commitment to staying home with her children. She freelanced for several years, then switched to stock photography, where her work was represented by a stock photo agency.
In 1997, Leo encouraged Karen to form a portrait photography business. She immersed herself in education provided by the Professional Photographers of America and the Professional Photographers of Washington. From a background of journalistic photography, Karen learned to incorporate great poses with great moments.
In 1999 Karen trained in Photoshop. Merging computers and photography changed Karen's direction and she jumped to digital photography.
Karen's husband Leo died of a heart attack in 2000, at the age of 41. She is grateful to both Leo and God for allowing her to have 3 years of education behind her before she was compelled to grow a small business into a full-time job.
Critical to the story, Karen was 3 months pregnant when Leo died.Today, Leo Jr. is 10 years old. With the support of her 3 adult kids, Karen juggles photography and parenting, occasionally finding time for household duties such as cooking dinner.
Ben, Karen's 27-year-old son, is a biology student at Western and hopes to eventually head to med school.
Lainie, Karen's 25-year-old daughter, is a graduate journalism student at the University of Missouri (carrying on the family tradition!).
Gabe, Karen's 22-year-old son, is a senior at Western Washington University, studying linguistics.
Leo jr. is in 5th grade and loves rocks, bugs, animals, reading, Legos and bicycling.
In 2007, Karen converted her garage into a studio.
In May 2009, Karen passed both the image review and the PPA certification exam to become one of only 17 certified professional photographers in Washington (at the time). Photography is both a brainy and artsy business!
In April 2011 Karen received her Fellowship of Photography degree from the Professional Photographers of Washington, as a result of years of education, service and merits for receiving high scores in photographic competitions.
