Hello! I’m Marisa!

My pronouns are She/Her.

My background is in painting, I am a classically trained artist with a BFA in Painting (I still paint!). I see the world through an artist's eyes - highly tuned to color, light, composition, shapes and lines.

I am a retired wedding photographer who specializes in flay lay styling and photography for stationers, calligraphers and designers all over the world!

I also LOVE shooting the occasional portrait session with my favorite person, my husband Tim.

Origin Story

First established in 2011 as a wedding photo business, Marisa began offering flat lay services in 2020 as a pivot during the pandemic.

In April 2011, while in between jobs, I was looking on Craigslist and saw a couple in need of a photographer for their small courthouse elopement. Although I had no experience as a professional photographer, I gathered up the confidence to ask this couple if I could be their photographer. I fell in love with the whole experience – getting to know the couple, hearing their story, talking with them about their dreams for the future, and documenting this momentous occasion in their life, and thought, "hey! maybe this is a thing I can do!" From there we started small, with Tim joining in as second shooter beginning with the third wedding.

During the pandemic, there was a drastic shift in the wedding industry and a pivot was needed. Shooting and styling details at weddings has always been one of my love languages, and over the years I would start to greatly look forward to the moment when I would get to style and shoot flat lays for my couples. As I started getting less and less wedding inquiries, I had a growing interest in my styling and flat lays from local stationers here in SoCal. Just like the wedding business origin story, I thought, "Hey! Maybe this is a thing people will want/need and I can do this full time!" From there I decided to dive in head-first and make styling and flat lay photography my (almost) exclusive service and I love it so so much.

At PDP we believe:

· Black Lives Matter · Trans Lives Matter · Women’s Rights = human rights · No human is illegal · Science is real · Disabilities are respected · Free Palestine 🇵🇸 · LOVE IS LOVE · Kindness is everything!

More About Me

We love CA!

Tim and I are both SoCal natives: I grew up in Orange, while Tim grew up in Huntington Beach. We are the same age and both attended the same college, but we did not meet until after Tim graduated.
Fun Facts

This business is my full time job and I completely designed my logo, branding and website myself!
Fun Facts

I met my other favorite person (my best friend of 10 years Ruth) when we photographed her and her husband's wedding in 2014!
14 (almost 15) Years!

Tim and I met through mutual Facebook stalking WAYYYY back in 2008. Ask me and I will tell you the hilarious story and how we scheduled our engagement hahahaha! We have been married since June 2010.
Fun Facts

I used to be a teacher! For almost 10 years, I was in the classroom, first assisting teachers, then teaching on my own. I taught drawing and painting to all ages and English Composition and Grammar to 7th graders.
A Few Favorite Things

• Tim • Dogs! • OK, all animals. Yes, that includes snakes! Not bugs though haha. • Succulents & cacti •Flowers. All the flowers. But my favorite flower is Ranunculus. • Also colors. All the colors. • Painting • Comedy TV shows with Parks & Rec, Schitt's Creek, Arrested Development, and Always Sunny in Philadelphia as all-time faves. • Organizing • Iced coffee (year round baby!) • Biking • Origami • English. Grammar. Spelling.
Crazy Greyhound People

We have two retired racing greyhounds Panko and Alli (we recently lost Stormy, the black and white pup). We love educating people about greyhounds and have become frequent volunteers for our rescue group. We also dog-sit for greyhound families only!
Fun Facts

My parents shot weddings together back in days of film, and they were friends with Ansel Adams!