Born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised on a farm in Montville, Ohio, Terri was drawn to photography even as a child. "It's the only thing I ever wanted to do," she says. "I was taking Polaroids when I was seven years old. I remember asking for cameras as Christmas presents. Every year I would ask for a better one. My first one was a Polaroid where you had to put the fixer on the paper and watch it develop. I was amazed by how the image slowly appeared."

She describes her upbringing as "typical Midwestern" - active in sports and the photography club during school and responsible for chores after school. "I was given a lot of freedom and encouraged to follow my dreams," she says. Both her mother and her grandmother planted and nurtured the idea that "a girl can do anything she wants."

Terri worked for The Times in Munster, Indiana for two years, after graduating with an associates degree in photography. She says, "Sometimes it was a little overwhelming, but very educational. I learned how you have to adapt to different situations quickly."

In the winter of 1989, Terri took a job with The Daily Iberian in New Iberia, Louisiana. Moving to South Louisiana was like moving to another world. "The first question anybody asked me was where was I from," she says. "The minute I opened my mouth, they knew I wasn't from here; and if I told them my last name, they were sure I wasn't from here."

Nine months into her job with The Daily Iberian, she took another job at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana. She was one of four full-time staff photographers. She says, during that time, "I learned how to trust my own instincts more and to shoot for myself. I learned how to adapt to a culture that I wasn't from." After eight years of being on call day and night, Terri resigned. "I had no desire to do the accidents and the shootings anymore. That hard news stuff, that takes a certain kind of person, and I'm not that person." Looking back on the experience, she says, "I don't miss the daily grind, but you have to learn how to do that as a photographer."

That same year she accepted the position of photo editor at The Times of Acadiana, a weekly newspaper in Lafayette, Louisiana. "That was one of the best things I ever did for my career," she says. "It gave me so much freedom to spend time with a subject. I was given days to really delve into what the story was all about.

"A daily newspaper records what is there, and I'm not just recording what's in front of me. I try to give it some feeling, some emotion and try to show what the ambience of the environment is. I'm not just there to record that moment. I'm trying to give more than just the photo of record."

There's more to Terri's work than just pointing and shooting. She says, "When I'm working, there's such an incredible adrenaline rush that I don't notice if I'm in pain. All I see is the light and the colors or the lines in the person's hands or the expression in their face. It's a natural high when you can capture that on film exactly how you see it and feel it.

"I think in a photograph it's harder to show emotion than in a painting. In a painting, you're creating the emotion. In a photograph, you're trying to capture it by showing what's actually there. I can't change it to make it more emotional. I can only show what is there, and that's the challenge, to figure out how to work it so that it comes out that way on film."

In March 2003, Terri resigned from her position at The Times of Acadiana to freelance full-time. Today she contributes regularly to The Independent of Lafayette, Louisiana. She continues to freelance for magazines, newspapers and commercial clients, while also pursuing her own artistic endeavors.

And in South Louisiana, she is never at a loss for subject matter. "When I moved down here," she says, "I only planned on staying here for two years, and that was 14 years ago. It's because of the people, the culture and the music. It's a fascinating place to photograph."

What she enjoys shooting the most are "everyday people that I think a lot of us overlook. They're just like you and me. They're ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and it doesn't matter if they're raising a child or raising sugar cane. They're the ones working two jobs with overtime just to make ends meet, just to get by. They have the best stories. They experience life as it really is."

Terri's unique vision affords us a different perspective on the mundane. She captures moments of decision and grace that are not only disarming but also inviting. Her unusal perspective reminds us that even the ordinary is quite extraordinary. And most importantly, her images remind us that it is never enough to simply record humanity's trials and triumphs, but that we are obligated - at every moment in our lives - to uplift the human spirit.