Karen Marsh says that her love of photography has been developed over a lifetime of dynamic experiences.

Such diverse occupations as being a staff reporter for a Buddhist organization, an Uber driver and a property manager have enabled her to see things in unique ways. Marsh believes these and other undertakings have given her “a different perspective” on life.

Originally from Louisville, Ky., Marsh was the eldest and, sometimes to her chagrin, the tallest of six children.

She recalls that whenever her mother took pictures of them, her head was always cut off. Frustrated, she implored her mother to turn the camera duties over to her.

“That’s why there are very few pictures of me growing up. I was always behind the camera.”

Marsh’s first trip to Florida occurred when she visited her grandfather in the Everglades, where he was a furniture maker.

“Being one of six children, my mother was happy to see one of us leave. Being an only child in Florida, oh yeah!” she says with a laugh.

Her appreciation of Florida’s culture and climate was so profound that she ultimately decided to make it her home, currently splitting her time between Vero Beach and St. Augustine. The latter, she declares, is “the coolest place in the world.”

Marsh attended the University of Louisville as a business major and, although the school didn’t have a photography program, she took every photography class that was offered. She was the only female in those classes, alongside 20 men.

During those college years, she also worked in the photo archives, restoring old black-and-white photographs in the darkroom.

She employed the Cibachrome printing method, a process used to reproduce slide images on photographic paper, resulting in prints that will not fade, discolor or deteriorate for an extended timeframe. Marsh says the Cibachrome prints were so stable they were used to make billboards.

“At the time, only four of us in the country used that process,” she recalls.

The work experience allowed her to hone her photography skills while taking the required business classes, affording her a comprehensive background in both subjects.

Marsh explains that modern technologies elicited sweeping changes in photography during the 1970s and 1980s, especially the processing of prints in the darkroom.

The world became a different place with the introduction of instant color photographs and digital cameras, and Marsh’s perspective shifted along with it.

Today, she says she is always on the lookout for anything happening all around her, and enjoys capturing those moments with her cellphone. Yes, that’s right – she uses a cellphone these days as opposed to a 35mm camera, to record those subjects that catch her eye.

“I get high-quality prints because I use photographic paper. The quality of my photos is very important to me,” she explains.

Although prior to the pandemic she had a portrait studio in Fort Pierce, Marsh says she prefers to photograph subjects other than people.

“I look for angles,” she says.

Referencing a photo she took of a cross in a field that was taken on a diagonal, she explains that the cross would look very different if taken at a straight angle.

Similarly, she likes to take photos from “car level.”

For example, she says, everyone tends to take the same view of the Castillo de San Marcos Fort from the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum.

On the other hand, when taken from car level, Marsh explains, the perspective is completely different.

Marsh shares that her life was changed emotionally and creatively after her husband passed away unexpectedly. To extricate herself from the void she was experiencing, she heeded the advice of a friend to talk to at least 10 people every day.

To do so, she became an Uber driver, and now enjoys taking people, most of them tourists, to new and exciting destinations. The experience has enabled her to see things from their perspectives which, in turn, has given her newfound encounters as well.

It also enabled her to return to photography as an outlet to express herself, which subsequently had a healing effect on her.

Recently, Marsh has taken on a new artistic design she calls “tiny art.”

After photographing an object, such as a sunset, lighthouse, seagull or peacock, she then magnifies the image, focusing in on one element. That portion of the image is then cropped and printed, and she next embeds it into trinket sized treasures, including jewelry, drink coasters or keychains.

She envisions a customer in the middle of a wintery Michigan snowstorm, looking at the keychain and conceptually being transported back to a Florida vacation, recalling the sun’s warmth and evoking fond memories.

“I like to get energy into my pictures; draw energies out of the universe and then capture the energy. I want to leave something for people to enjoy and see the beauty of things,” explains Marsh, who currently displays her Tiny Arts/Photos by Karen at local art shows and crafts fairs.