Hi, I’m Heather.
Through my businesses, Heather Mladek Photography LLC and Mad Lake Creative Ink, I help businesses and entrepreneurs with commercial & branding photography, and online marketing.
As a writer, I work with clients in the outdoors, nature, and wellness businesses, among others. I enjoy working with entrepreneurs who have a passion for their business, especially female entrepreneurs.
As a photographer, I specialize in commercial & branding photography, as well as select portrait services. Enchantress Photography is my boutique photo studio offering luxury beauty, boudoir and glamour photography. I love offering this pampering, body positive, empowering experience to everyday women. I have been blessed with the amazing gift of helping women to see their innate beauty.
I’ve been photographing professionally since 2003 and working as a freelance writer since 2020 – though I have considered myself a writer since being selected for Young Authors’ Institute in middle school. (Hmm, I frequently carried a camera around back then too. I think my younger self would be pleased.)
Here’s a link to some writing samples and you can see my photography here.
Email Heather@MadLakeCreativeInk.com or schedule a call to discuss how Mad Lake Creative Ink can help you.
A bit more about me:
I’m a single mom with two boys. We enjoy time in the outdoors!
I enjoy stopping to catch my breath and take photographs while hiking – more than the hiking itself. I love exploring with my camera, looking to capture the beauty that I see around me. I’m the last to the destination and I’m okay with that. Sometimes I go for a solo hike just to soak in the solitude. Time in nature rejuvenates my soul and capturing photos slows me down to appreciate the exquisite beauty in raw nature.
I hope my photography inspires you to take a moment to look around during the small moments of life. That’s where the magic lies.
Both photography and writing have been lifelong passions of mine. As you can see:
The first time I identified as a writer was when I was chosen for Young Authors Institute in my middle school years and I haven’t put down the pen since.
I fondly remember the pens my grandfather gifted me over the years. A half a dozen, beautiful, high quality pens. He knew.
I don’t remember my first camera. But I DO remember having several, a disk camera, a 110, a Polaroid, and, finally, a 35mm.
And I DO remember waiting anxiously for the envelope of pictures to come back from the mail away lab.
And the joy of opening the package and seeing what I’d captured.
Then I got my first SLR – my first manual camera.
I learned the photography craft when film was still winning the quality argument over digital. Back then the photo labs were all one-hour labs and I went through hundreds of rolls of film, shooting in manual mode so I had to learn.
I had a hunger to capture every single beautiful thing that I encountered in the world and I wanted to photograph it all. It was then, when I was fully enraptured with photography, that my grandfather gave me his camera. It was this beautifully cared for Ziess Ikon that he purchased in Germany in 1949. I still choose it for my hikes some days.
Naturally, my two passions came together to form the basis for my business. It gives me great joy to be able to use my gifts to help others solve their problems!
If I’m not writing, photographing or editing you can find me: attending live music events – large & small, curled up with a book, doing mom stuff, or dancing in my kitchen.
Email Heather@MadLakeCreativeInk.com or click here to set up a time to discuss how Mad Lake Creative Ink can help you.
One last photo – let’s call it an indication of my work ethic:
