Kevin Dilmore and I are looking forward to showing and telling you all how our family has grown in 19 years.🌈🪴💜
Eric Legge | Dirk Fowler | Ginny Dixon | Raven
My photography teacher, Ginny Dixon, introduced me to one of the most fascinating humans I’ve ever met—folk artist Eric Legge. If you’ve never seen his work, I hope you’ll take a minute to watch this.
Years later, my incredible design professor from Texas Tech, Dirk Fowler, created a beautiful piece to celebrate Raven’s 50-year running streak. As a thank-you, I sent Dirk one of Eric’s pieces—the one with the tall flower tree you’ll see in this video.
I love when the people who have shaped my life creatively become connected in the most unexpected ways.
Ginny, Eric, and Dirk… thank you for making the world more interesting, more beautiful, and more human.
You three are from the same solar system as me.👩🎤🌈💜
PORTRAITURE & CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHY & MOTION | Production Paradise
Mary Beth Koeth is an editorial and commercial portrait photographer based in Dallas, Texas.
Known for creating authentic, human-centered imagery, she works with leading publications and brands including The New York Times, AARP, ESPN, Golf Digest, Billboard, Forbes, and Time Magazine.
Recent assignments have taken her from Kenya’s Maasai Mara to New York City, Los Angeles, Tulsa, and Miami, photographing everyone from world champions and entertainers to everyday people with extraordinary stories.
Her work focuses on connection, resilience, identity, and the lives that often go unnoticed.
In addition to commissioned photography, Mary Beth is developing several long-term documentary projects exploring community, aging, foster care, and the evolving role of women in contemporary society.
Best Crew Ever
Some jobs pay the bills. Some jobs give you stories. These guys have given me both.
They’re my digi tech, assistants, gaffers, problem-solvers, therapists, comedians, and friends.
Javi is now a dad to the cutest little human and somehow still shows up with endless patience and a great attitude.
Jose is the chillest person I know and hands down the best assistant I’ve ever worked with.
Pietro is an incredible photographer, an amazing dad, and, as a bonus, Italian.🤌
Bruno and I met in the checkout line at Trader Joe’s in South Beach. He made me laugh, handed me a fistful of lollipops, and somehow that turned into a real friendship.
Photography can look like a one-person job from the outside, but the truth is that none of us do this alone. The people behind the camera are only as good as the people standing beside them.
Grateful for these humans, their talent, their kindness, and all the laughs between setups.
Javier Ignacio Sanchez, Jose Arizmendi, Bruno Vago, Pietro Milici, Johnny Beltran 🫶
Heidi BigKnife | AARP
I drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to photograph Heidi BigKnife for AARP, and what started as an assignment quickly turned into a friendship.
Heidi welcomed me into her adorable pink home, introduced me to her puppy, and shared stories about her life, her work, and her Shawnee heritage. She was commissioned to create a contemporary dush-toh, a traditional Shawnee hair ornament now represented in a museum collection.
One of my favorite parts of photography is meeting people I never would have crossed paths with otherwise. Behind every artifact, every object, every museum piece, is a human story. Heidi reminded me that those stories are always the most valuable part.
Thank you, Heidi, for your generosity, your talent, and a day I’ll never forget.
Ishara Kenya
One Year Ago Today
One year ago today I woke up in a hospital bed unable to move.
I had no idea where I was or what had happened. My sister looked at me and said, “You tried to commit suicide.” I said, “No I didn’t. What happened?”
I had gone to a ketamine clinic while in a severe medication-induced depression after months of telling multiple psychiatrists that something was deeply wrong. I didn’t feel like myself. I couldn’t access my creativity, my work, or my mind in the way I always had before.
The next thing I remember after my mom getting a good parking spot was waking up a month and a half later with both legs destroyed, fractures throughout my body, and metal replacing parts of my bones.
I’m lucky to be alive.
I’m lucky to be walking.
And strangely enough, I’m lucky for all of it.
Nothing would have brought me back to Dallas otherwise. Now I’m here with my parents at 88 and 84, helping care for them while rebuilding a completely different life than the one I thought I wanted.
A year later, I’m still healing physically, mentally, financially, spiritually. But I’m here. And I think more people should talk about the ugly parts of life instead of only posting the polished moments.
This photo isn’t beautiful.
But surviving is.
And sometimes the thing that completely breaks your life apart is also the thing that returns you to yourself.
Ishara Mara
Tomorrow is my last day in the Mara, and it’s always hard to leave.
The past two weeks at Ishara Mara have been incredible. Lions and hippos outside my riverside cabin at night, bush breakfasts by the river, amazing wildlife, incredible food, and some of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. Shinka, one of my favorite Maasai, is the perfect example.
Canon sponsors Ishara, so guests have access to fantastic gear and expert photography guides, plus a beautiful Nordic spa for when you’re not out on safari.
My heart is full. Next stop: Brussels for a week with two of my best friends.
Maasai Mara, Kenya | Ishara
Yesterday in the Mara felt like a dream.
A mother giraffe and her baby moving across the horizon. Two lions stalking buffalo through the grass. Incredible wildlife at every turn, brought to life by our amazing guide, Ben at @isharakenya
As the sun set, we gathered with fellow travelers beneath a full moon that lit up the entire landscape.
Moments like these remind you how wild, beautiful, and interconnected life really is.
Grateful for every second.
Bert Kreischer | Flamingo Magazine
A few months ago I photographed Bert Kreischer in Los Angeles for Flamingo Magazine.
Bert was exactly what you'd hope he'd be: funny, generous, and completely game for whatever we threw at him. But the surprise star of the day was his wife, LeeAnn.
If you've ever met someone who can effortlessly hold a room together while simultaneously making everyone feel like an old friend, that's LeeAnn. She brought this warmth and groundedness that made the whole shoot feel less like work and more like hanging out with people you've known for years.
Huge thanks to Jamie and her friend for helping make the day happen. Shoots are never really about one person. They're a weird little temporary family that forms for a few hours, creates something together, and then scatters back into the world.
This was one of those good ones.
Younger Photographers Older Ones Too | Need to Hear This
Younger photographers — and honestly older ones too — need to hear this:
Being wanted is not the same thing as being respected.
I’ve photographed billionaires, finance executives, major companies, politicians, celebrities, and brands people would recognize instantly. Again and again I’ve watched wealthy clients praise the work, praise the vision, praise the talent… and then suddenly become “confused” when the invoice arrives.
One production company told me a commercial shoot would roughly cost $5k. By the time they required a Digi Tech, lighting, assistants, rentals, mileage, travel, hotels during spring break, and gear delivery, my expenses alone were over $6,000. They refused the invoice and said they’d only pay $5k total.
Another company flew me to NYC to photograph top executives over a ten-day period, then refused to pay hold days, food, transportation, or my assistant’s hotel — the assistant carrying gear up and down 47 floors.
Another finance client wanted full rights to the images so they could distribute them to magazines and media outlets. I flew from Dallas to Miami, rented gear, bought custom gels for the shoot, rented a car, and delivered exactly what they wanted. I invoiced $4,150 INCLUDING usage rights. They immediately pushed me down to $3k.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
Artists are taught to be grateful for access.
Powerful people are taught to negotiate everything.
Your talent is not the invoice.
Your boundaries are.
Stop subsidizing wealthy clients with your own exhaustion, flights, hotel rooms, assistants, gear, food, licensing, and peace.
If someone has the budget for luxury offices, branding campaigns, private equity deals, magazine PR, and million-dollar image management strategies, they have the budget to pay the artist properly.
I’m no longer interested in being “easy to work with” at my own expense.
Know your worth.
Protect your gift.
And stop apologizing for charging what your work is actually worth.
No Partner Required | Mary & Dylan
Mary & Dylan
No Partner Required.
Mary waited 1,033 days to become a mother.
Not because she was unsure.
Not because she was incomplete.
Because life — and faith — asked her to surrender every timeline she thought she needed.
In 2020, she began the adoption process alone. Through years of waiting, prayer, heartbreak, healing, and trust, she kept saying yes to a life she could not yet see.
Then came Dylan.
A son whose name means “Son of the Sea,” arriving after years of prayer by the water, where she says God continually reminded her that she was already loved, already chosen, already enough.
Today I photographed Mary and Dylan for my series No Partner Required — stories about women who chose motherhood outside the traditional narrative.
Not stories about lack.
Stories about love.
About courage.
About becoming fully alive.
There are many ways to build a family. This is one of them.
Ms. J | Rainbow Girl
I was standing outside a CVS in South Beach waiting on my cousin when I heard the most beautiful whistling.
I turned and said, “You don’t hear that anymore.”
We started talking—one of those conversations that just opens.
She told me she used to sing for some of the greats.
I said, “You should come to dinner. One of my best friends used to sing too. You’d love each other.”
She paused, smiled, and said,
“I feel like I just walked into a rainbow.”
I said, “You did. We’re both rainbows.”
Ms. J has a voice that stays with you.
But it’s her spirit that makes you feel at home.
She’s family now.
Paul Offit | Philadelphia Magazine
Shot a story on Dr. Paul Offit — a man who’s been called a lot of things, including “the devil” by RFK Jr.
But here’s what I experienced:
A warm home in Naples. A kind, generous couple. An awesome, really bright wife. A quiet presence. A sense of humor that meets you right where you are.
As I was setting up lights, I said, “Let’s make you look like an angel, not a devil.” We both laughed — and honestly, it didn’t feel like much of a stretch.
It’s always fascinating to witness the space between public narrative and private reality.
Grateful to Claudia Gavin for the trust, the kindness, and for bringing me into this story.
Some assignments stay with you. This was one of them.
Photography by Mary Beth Koeth for Philadelphia Magazine, Assistant | José Arizmendi, Photo Editor Claudia Gavin