Hey, we’re the faces behind The Framed Focus!
We’re Holly, Laura, Angie and Melissa (pictured from L-R) and we’re so happy that you found our little corner of the photography world.
We are four hardworking photographers (and moms!) who have a deep passion for community over competition and creating space where everyone is welcome, supported, encouraged and cheered on.
Thank you for being here! We’re so excited to have you joining us!
meet the team
Holly Awwad
Hi there! I'm Holly!
I've been a photographer for over a decade, starting as a typical mom-tog. I've evolved along the way, and while I still love capturing my family, I have transitioned into the macro and nature genres as the children have gotten older. I shoot with a Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Camera and use a variety of standard and Lensbaby lenses. As a proud Lensbaby Ambassador, I've had the pleasure of beta testing many Lensbaby products have worked closely with the company for several years.
I'm married to my high school sweetheart, and we live in a rural town in Michigan with our three kids. We are animal lovers and have many pets – 6 dogs, 5 cats, and a bunch of chickens. We love our country life, even though we grew up and started our family in the suburbs. We moved to the country in 2016 and haven't looked back since.
I absolutely love nature and being outside. Traveling is a passion of mine, but I also cherish my time at home. I value deep connections and prefer having a few great friends over many acquaintances. You'll often find me outdoors, no matter the season, enjoying nature with my family and fur-babies. I'm inspired by the elements and how we interact with them in our daily lives. My goal is to evoke emotion in my work using light, movement, and the environment. If I can make my viewers feel even a fraction of what I felt while capturing the moment, then I've done my job.
My passion for photography has blossomed into a love for community and helping others on their photography journeys.
I hope you'll see me as a friendly resource and feel comfortable reaching out with any photography questions.
Laura Froese
Hi, I’m Laura, a full-time wedding and family photographer 50% of the year and a full-time photography instructor the other half. I also edit on the side and dabble in stock photography. I shoot Sony mirrorless with a mix of Canon and Sigma glass. I love primes, but can’t live without my 70-200mm on a wedding. My favourite piece of gear, though, is my off-camera flash! Teaching people to create their own “window light” anytime, and anywhere, is a passion of mine.
I live on the West Coast of Canada with my husband of 15 years and three young boys. My children are aged 5, 7 and 8, and we are a neurospicy household with too many cats! In my “spare time” I am advocating for them, helping out at as a special education assistant at local schools, and then collapsing with Netflix and wine (or whiskey!).
Fun fact, my husband is nerd famous as a full-time Youtuber and runs the channel Playon Tabletop. We also met on a forced blind date set up by his grandma and my mom. Before kids we loved to travel and take road trips. We once spent a few weeks travelling all across the Northern United States from coast to coast in our tiny Matrix. We also took a 5-month-old on an 11-day road trip around Iceland (highly recommend that age for travel by the way). Now, with young kids that struggle with transitions, our idea of a good time is setting up the pool in the backyard and sipping drinks on the deck while saying, “Yes, wow, I see that!” over and over.
Whether I’m shooting, teaching, or supporting kids with extra needs, the heart of it all is the people - the community. I am so excited to be a part of the creation of The Framed Focus with my fellow photographers who are not merely just colleagues, but also have become my ride-or-die tribe over the last half a decade. We are excited to create a space filled with encouragement and education, and most of all - community.
Angie Mahlke
I am a wife and a mother to two wild boys and one sassy girl, in addition to a dog, cat and three goldfish, which gives me ample material to work with behind my lens. I love capturing the genuine moments as they unfold because they hold more emotional meaning to me—they transport me back to that time—and I know these are little mementos of our lives I’ll cherish in years to come.
You can find me in a small farming community in southeast Minnesota, just a few hours from where I grew up, in a different small farming community. Small town living is in my roots.
My photography journey started in high school with an old film camera and a dark room. The digital world is instant gratification, but there is something to be said about watching your image appear slowly in the solution—your inspiration brought to life.
Of course, like most momtogs, it wasn’t until I became a mother that the hobby turned into a passion project. I started on a Canon Rebel and a nifty 50mm lens. Years later, I upgraded to a Canon 6D and acquired new lenses. I’ve upgraded to a mirrorless, Canon R6. I don’t own a lot of gear and none of it is overly fancy and sometimes I use my trusty iPhone, but I am here to tell you that the gear doesn’t make the photographer. It’s how you use your gear that is truly the important thing.
My biggest photography passion is p52s. I’ve been doing them for more years than I have fingers on to count a single hand. There’s something about an organized project and a built-in community that pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to keep picking up my camera on a regular basis. We’re all busy. Sometimes that extra push in a safe, encouraging and inspiring community is all you need.
I lean heavily on the group aspect of any photography endeavor because a community goes a long way to keep you connected and inspired. Whether it’s a project like a p52 or a safe landing place while you navigate a professional photography career or possibly a go-to place of resources as you dive deep into learning and growing toward your own personal photography goals. We want to be that place for you, whatever that looks like for you.
I’m excited to follow along with you in our new community. So don’t be shy. Come say hi. Share your work. Use us, and each other, as a resource. Let’s be each other’s go-to people.
Follow Angie and see her work here:
Melissa Ortendahl
I’m so glad you’re here - I’m Melissa!
I am a full time wedding and portrait photographer based in Central Massachusetts (about an hour outside of Boston). I started my photography business in 2015, after leaving my 10+ year career in Higher Education (for which I hold a master’s degree). I decided to leave my prior career to be home with my children. I am a mother to three boys (which includes a set of identical twins). They are currently 14, 11 and 11.
In 2015, when I started my business, they were 5, 2.5 and 2.5. I had only had a handful of clients prior to 2015 and didn’t really have a business to speak of. I’ve had a passion for photography since I was a kid. I taught myself how to shoot in manual mode in 2011 on a Canon Rebel with a “nifty-fifty” lens.
I decided to take the three years I knew I would be at home with my kids and try to build a business. I had no idea what I was doing or how to do it, but I figured it out. I worked on it during nap times and after the boys went to bed until the early morning hours. I spent countless hours figuring out marketing, teaching myself lightroom and photoshop, improving my photography skills - you could say that I built the plane while I was flying it.
My goal was to be able to quit the part-time job I had to get after I left my full-time career to make ends meet and have my photography business take it’s place. In the fall of 2018, I put my two brand new kindergartner’s on the bus with their older brother and walked back into my home office and started working for myself - full time.
If you had told me, 8 years ago, that I would be full-time photographer, in my fourth year of making six figures in my business, traveling all over the country for weddings and sessions - I would have laughed at you and said “yeah right!”. It didn’t occur to me then what was possible - because I didn’t know what WAS possible.
My passion is working with photographers who want to start, grow or scale their own businesses. I have been creating and teaching photography education online, through 1:1 mentoring and in-person workshops for the past six years. I am so excited to be creating a community that will be a resource for professional photographers - those already established in their businesses, those that are looking to grow and (especially) those that are exploring what is possible for them and their dreams.