Petaluma photographer perfects the art of capturing the moment

A group of teenagers sits on a series of concrete steps in a Petaluma Junior High School courtyard, each one mesmerized by the cellphone in front of them. The soft clatter of their fingers tapping away at their screens is suddenly undercut by the rapid sound of a camera shutter snapping away.

Standing behind the lens is Petaluma-based photographer Stephanie Rausser, who was shooting the teens for the advertising material of “Screenagers: Growing Up In The Digital Age,” a new nationally-lauded documentary exploring social media, video gaming and Internet addiction among school-aged kids.

Rausser, whose photography has landed on the pages of publications like Vanity Fair, People Magazine and Parents Magazine since she started working as a professional photographer in the Bay Area more than 20 years ago, met the film’s director and co-producer during her high school years, and jumped at the opportunity to help her friends.

“The most exciting part of my job is when I’m holding my camera and everything is in place,” Rausser said. “I’ve got a great location, I have good support and I’ve got great subjects to photograph.”

Rausser, 49, and her husband, Lawrence Cowell, 47, have operated a photography business out of the studio in the backyard of their West Petaluma home since they moved to the area in 2004. Aside from doing editorial work for magazines, Rausser also boasts a lengthy list of advertising clients, including high-profile names like Target, Walgreens and Old Navy.

While Rausser handles the photography and creative side of the venture, Cowell takes care of the office work needed for the business to run successfully, including crafting billing estimates for clients, handling the payrolls and branding the business.

When the pair isn’t holding meetings with clients or researching the newest camera gear, they spend time with their daughter Cleo, an eighth-grader at Petaluma Junior High and their son Max, who’s a student at University of Colorado Boulder.

For Rausser, the roots that she’s grown in Petaluma over the past 12 years represent a stability that was rare for her growing up. Born in Davis, Rausser and her family moved all over the state as her father found teaching jobs in cities such as Fresno, Cupertino and Berkeley, among others. Her parents divorced in 1976, which also contributed to Rausser’s frequent relocation, since she moved between living with the two parents.

By the time Rausser was in 12th grade, she had gone to five elementary schools and four different high schools - a new school every year.

“I was always on the sidelines watching,” Rausser said. “I wasn’t engaging because I was always the new kid at school kind of just watching things.”

Photography became a constant for Rausser as she progressed into her teenage years. Her mother was an avid photographer who always snapped shots of Rausser and her siblings while they were growing up, building a darkroom in their laundry room at one point. When Rausser was 13, her father gifted her with her first camera: a Pentax ME Super.

After taking photography classes in high school, Rausser’s interest in photography peaked as a student at UC Berkeley. Though she graduated with a degree in English in 1988, she said she took a photography class every semester in order to have access to the school’s darkroom facilities.

“With each class, I dug deeper into my love for (photography), my fascination with it,” Rausser said.

Rausser began carving her own path to a career in photography without a degree. She found gigs at local newspapers such as the East Bay Express, the Bay Guardian and SF Weekly, working on environmental portraiture.

Slowly, she said she began establish relationships with different publications and padded her portfolio with an array of work. In 1996, she hired an agent to help her break into the world of advertising. That same year, she moved into a new home in Berkeley with Cowell, and the pair had their first child.

“The work started coming in and it started getting complicated pretty quickly,” Cowell said about the advertisement jobs, adding that after he watched Rausser’s business develop, he decided to leave his teaching position in Emeryville in 1998 to help her full time.

With a growing child and a growing business, the pair sought out a new home with more space. They moved to Penngrove in 2001 before making the transition to Petaluma.

Almost 20 years later, the two continue to work on expanding their business amid the changing and competitive photography field, Rausser said. Most of the work that Rausser does nowadays is for advertising and editorial work from New York City. Her distinctive style is usually female-focused and includes bright colors and whimsical scenes.

Between managing a photography crew and making sure that the client is happy, Rausser said her role can be very stressful.

“It’s complicated but it’s challenging and really fun,” Rausser said. “I feel like I’m really good at managing the world of my client and their clients.”

Despite the stress, her excitement on the day of a shoot paired with the opportunity to make her creative visions come true with the support of her team makes it all worthwhile, she said.

“I’m just kind of queen,” Rausser said of her shoots. “I’m queen bee.”

(Contact Nashelly Chavez at argus@arguscourier.com)