Sherry A. E. Cann is a 58-year-old Boise native who got a degree in photography in 1982. But then she got married, had children and moved around, making photography a hobby. She had a “day job” as an architectural and engineering project manager assistant, she says.

“Now the kids are grown, and I realize I’m able to get back into it full force,” she says.

Cann recently launched Sherry Ann Elizabeth Photography with a focus on portraits of newborns and families. She also takes head shots for business use, senior portraits and the occasional wedding. The business is in a rented space in the Northview Center at 25 E. Fairview Ave., Suite 230, Meridian.

Q: What challenges have you faced?

A: With the quality and price of good cameras, seems like everyone is a backyard photographer, so it’s hard to convince them to pay for services they feel they can do themselves. And many of them are very good. So the economy of things has certainly leveled the playing field some.

Q: What makes your business unique and sets it apart from your competition?

A: I think my focus being on primarily the newborns and families, not trying to do everything. There are other great wedding photographers out there, and commercial and architectural photographers. I put my energy where my heart and my talent is, on the little ones.

Q: What do you hope to achieve in the next three to five years?

A: To grow my business enough that I could bring on an assistant or intern to train. To provide the pictures that families will cherish for the rest of their lives, preserving for them the memories that mean the most. That first tiny hand and footprint on their heart and soul.

Audrey Dutton: 377-6448