While Jess Donatelle and her husband, Jake, moved to Plymouth just two years ago, the Norwex consultant already recognizes Plymouth’s unspoken beauty—it’s safe, clean and has lots of green space and trails, she says.
“We love walking the trails,” Donatelle says, “a little oasis in the middle of the city—and all within walking distance from our apartment.” A perfect place, the couple thought, to expand their household to include their rescue pup, Bailey Rose (a Corgi-Chihuahua-Poodle mix) whom they adopted shortly after moving to town.
While exercising Bailey on a brisk November day on one of the trails near Maple Creek Park, Donatelle saw an opportunity. An amateur photographer who’s been snapping photos for five years, she’s developed a keen eye for her surroundings.
“Bailey and I were out for a fall bike ride, and I just couldn’t help snapping a shot of her in her basket,” she says. “The colors were incredible, and she just looked so stinking cute sitting there. There, in that one shot, were some of my most favorite things in the whole world—fall colors and my sweet little puppy.”
It shouldn’t be surprising that elements from the animal kingdom inspire Donatelle. “I’ve found that there are two things that kind of drive my love for photography: First, I love to try and capture God’s creativity in nature,” she says. “Second, I enjoy taking snapshots of special moments in my life … it allows me to go back to the point in time when I took that particular picture, to reminisce on what was going on in that moment, as well as the moments surrounding it.”