Susan Paradis

Location: Machias, Maine

I was born in Baltimore, the oldest of five, but spent the "remembering days" of my childhood in Doylestown, PA. Later we moved to the Adirondacks of NY and had a small farm, where we were able to keep horses and ride in competition. I received my first camera at 10, a little Kodak we bought with box tops. I still have those early black and whites; I took pictures of my brothers and sisters and cats.

When I turned 20, my sister and I moved to Maine, and have never looked back. We LOVE it here! We lived in the Blue Hill area, and then Ellsworth. Meanwhile, I bought a 110 camera and started taking serious shots of Maine, and then in 1984, I got an SLR, an all-manual Minolta, which I adored. I experimented with portraits and had many "photo sessions" with my friends. On marrying my husband (a resident of Machias) in 2000, I moved here and started taking pictures of Downeast Maine, my new "field" of photography. I love light, and dark purple stormy skies, and color! In 2005, I started making cards to sell and hey, people bought them!

Northern Tides carries a variety of Susan Paradis' cards. Susan places each photo image on a mat of color, giving each image the "pop" of a border of color. Her 5x7 greeting cards are blank inside, and presented in a cellophane sheath. E-mail us if you're looking for a specific Downeast image.