A mother of four, photographer, nature lover. Someone trying to make sense of it all, through photos and stories. 

I try to be free in all senses of the word, so I made the leap and now work with what I love doing; taking pictures, storing this life in moments, both for myself and for clients. My heart is in photographing birth and motherhood, but I take on just about any photography job. 
(See my birth photos at www.birth.no and the rest of my work portfolio at www.mariavatne.no.)

I live on a farm in Norway with my man Nik and my children Ronja, Freja, Falk and Ulv, plus a bunch of animals. We grow our own food as far as the seasons allow it, we don't go to kindergarten, the three youngest ones will be homeschooled.

We govern our own lives, we strive for independence, we want to be in this life wild and free and full of love.

Last night I dreamt...

Love + vegetables
"rambling"
...not that somebody loved me (referring to the beautiful Smiths-song here), but that we had gone and bought ourselves two TIGERS. And not cute fluffy trusty little tiger cubs, but two full grown crazy tigers.
I was so scared. Mr. Payne wasn't, he treated them like any of our other animals, except they were fed with huge lumps of raw meat. (Whoa, maybe we fed them our lambs, or chickens, or calves!) I was completely certain that he would get eaten one day.
I know for sure that my husband will never want us to buy tigers for our farm, but I have to admit I am curious to see what destiny has in store for us now...
(Note: Superstitious me thought of the Chinese zodiac signs, and I'd forgotten, but Freja is born in the year of the Tiger. And yes, she is double trouble sometimes!)

Making the most of it.