Lauren Major
Growing up in Chicago with a darkroom in her family’s basement, Lauren Major spent hours developing images with her father. After earning an MBA in finance and working in the financial industry for more than 20 years, she established a photography and filmmaking company that specialized in portraiture, lifestyle and events for her corporate and nonprofit clientele.
Upon moving from Chicago to the Park City area in 2019, Major discovered a love of nature, wildlife and abstract photography. After suffering sudden and nearly lethal cardiac arrest while photographing moose in Jackson Hole in 2021, she realized that our time with nature is fleeting. Major’s photography has carried her to the far corners of the earth, from the depths of the Ecuadorian Amazon to the icy expanse of the Arctic Circle. In Utah, Major enjoys photographing horses in the West Desert of Toole County and fall and wintery landscapes around northern Utah.
Michael Flaherty
Trading in the hustle and bustle of Atlanta for the wide-open spaces and peaceful mountain surroundings of Utah, Michael Flaherty relocated to Park City 24 years ago. The move wrapped up a sales and marketing career in the insurance industry that exceeded 30 years, giving him plentiful time for photographing wildlife around Summit County and the world.
With a residence overlooking Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter, Flaherty has plenty of material from his own backyard. He has taken thousands of photos, earned a following on Facebook (Michael Flaherty Photography) and posts images of wildlife and landscapes almost daily on Nextdoor, but he doesn’t sell his work. Instead, he simply enjoys spending time with majestic animals in nature, networking with photographers and sharing his photos with local nonprofits such as Swaner Preserve and Save People Save Wildlife. Flaherty also spends time at a summer home in Ennis, Montana, located only 72 miles from West Yellowstone.
