Hello, and welcome to Naranjo Studios! I’m Michelle Naranjo, and I love capturing memorable and genuine moments. My interest in photography started with a school project and transformed into a career and lifelong passion.

Over the course of my career, I have utilized my photography skills in a variety of job positions, including portrait photographer, photojournalist, video journalist and lead media manager for a small business. One of my strengths is making people feel at ease in front of the camera, whether we're taking headshots, family photos, engagement portraits, senior pictures or capturing other milestone events.

My love for photography began as a young teenager at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics in Vancouver, Washington. I was working on a photo project and reached out to my grandpa Bob for guidance and tips, as he had become quite infatuated with photography later in his life. He gifted me one of his cameras, a Sony DSLR camera (seen in the photo on this page), that saw me through middle school, high school, college and my first post-college internship. I was very fortunate to receive a foundational education in film photography at VSAA while also personally pursuing digital photography, and that blossomed into an interest in photojournalism.

After high school, I spent four years ping-ponging between the performing arts building and the journalism department in the communications building at Western Washington University, where I ultimately received a BA in Visual Journalism and a minor in music (piano). During my time at WWU, I broadened my visual journalism skills to include videography.

I started off my professional career working at two family-owned newspapers, The Wenatchee World and The Columbian. During my time at The Wenatchee World, I produced and edited photos and videos for just about every section of the daily newspaper and other World publications and blogs, including Foothills Magazine, Wenatchee Valley Business World, BUZZ NCW, Wenatchee Mom Blog and Lake Chelan This Week.

Following my years working at newspapers, I was the media coordinator for a family-owned construction company in the Portland, Oregon, area. My visual work at this business included before and after photos, client video testimonials and project progress photos and videos. Additionally, I managed the company website and all social media accounts, and I helped grow their Instagram following by 350% in one year.