About

I was on a family vacation when I borrowed my father’s camera and never gave it back. (He did say I could keep it.) After many photography classes and a photography group, I decided to do an Associates of Applied Science in Photography which led to me doing Bachelor of Visual Arts from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, British Columbia. I had an amazing art teacher who told me I needed to do more art, and I agreed! At Emily Carr I studied sculpture, ceramics and printmaking.

I'm originally from Washington State but having a father in the military we moved to New Mexico when I was very young before returning to Washington as a teen. I then moved to London, Switzerland, Vancouver, and Montreal before moving to Key West in 2012. 

I started working for Craig Reynolds Landscape Architects as a part-time office coordinator over ten years ago, but my role there grew to include marketing, photography, and social media. (He has a few followers; you should check him out - his gardens are stunning, plus, I create all of his content.) My images of Craig’s projects have been featured in magazines such as Ocean Home, Landscape Architect, Garden Design, and Florida Design, Miami Design among others. (Ocean Home and Florida Design were covers!) It's from working with Craig that I became known locally as a photographer. His gardens are so beautiful, it's hard to get a bad photo of them.

In photography school everyone wanted to shoot fashion, sports, or weddings but I always wanted to shoot for Architectural Digest and Dwell and of course National Geographic. As much as I love photography, I also love art. I am an art class junkie, always signing up for classes to learn new techniques. I even taught two iPhone photography classes at The Studios of Key West. 

When not at home editing, shooting for clients, or creating social media content for clients, I love to wander the backstreets of Key West, shooting images for my @the_sunnyside_up Instagram feed. I wanted the feed to be about the fun, whimsical side of Key West and the little things about the islands that I love. I was having breakfast at Goldman's one morning and the woman sitting next to me told me about her boat that ended up upside down but that they got a new one and called it "Sunnyside Up". It's also the way my mom orders her eggs, so it felt that was an appropriate name for a social media page

Whether it’s a garden or interior, watching how the light and all the elements that make up the space change throughout the day and how the right light can emphasize an area that was overlooked or change the mood and feel of a space entirely, makes my job even more rewarding. I feel at home with a camera in my hands or doing something creative.

- Tamara Alvarez