About Leslie Wells

I was born and raised in the Northern California farming town of Lincoln, CA. Recently my husband and I relocated to Rio Rico, AZ to be closer to our grown children and my parents. We love Arizona and the Southwest there are some truly spectacular areas here to explore! We raised our family on a thousand acre cattle ranch, so I love being outdoors, working in the yard, every kind of animal, and I especially live for road trips!

I first picked up a camera at age 10, a gift from my parents to keep me busy over summer vacation– and boy, did it! I took photography classes throughout high school and taught the lab classes the last two years. I went on to college to major in Photography-Fine Arts at Sierra College, Rocklin, CA, where I specialized in portraiture, studio photography and landscapes. I owned a portrait business for over 10 years in Lincoln, CA.

These days, I especially enjoy capturing the night sky and have ventured to numerous remote low pollution locations to capture starry skies. Ironically, while I am scared of the dark, over the years I’ve managed to create a body of work featuring Milky Way night skies in beautiful locations. I was happy to learn that Santa Cruz County has recently adopted a Dark Sky outdoor lighting policy to preserve our night sky views.

My award winning landscapes have been featured internationally in Travel Africa magazine Spring 2018, Idaho Adventure Travel Guide 2022, Via Adventure Winter Issue 2019, Style Magazine, as well as featured in various local newspapers.