Orah Moore began her photographic explorations in Dewitt, New York, as a child of twelve with her grandfather's Kodak Retina III camera. In high school she acquired black and white darkroom skills, which opened a whole new world to the budding photographer. In her late teens Moore ventured out to the Colorado Rockies amidst columbine and pine trees that smelled of vanilla. The mountain vistas that she saw seeped into her veins and found expression in her color photography.
Next her visual sojourns took her to California and Montana. She studied with Ansel Adams, Ruth Bernhard, V.M. Robertson and Ralph Cooksey-Talbott and earned her MA in Fine Art Photography from California State College of Fullerton studying under Eileen Cowin and Darryl Curren. Her Master's graduate show “Stewards of the Land” was from a body of work she shot in black and white infrared on a widelux camera of the ranching lifestyle of the family rancher.
Moore and her young family moved to beautiful northern Vermont, where she began working in color again. Summer, fall, winter and spring: nature's rhythm passed before her camera and she took notice. Moore began Haymaker Press in 1987, publishing her own images of Vermont, Maine, the Cape and the Adirondack as greeting cards, journals, posters and original framed photos and also shot weddings and portraits running both businesses out of her home while her sons grew. In 2000 she moved the businesses to Main Street, Morrisville and also opened the Haymaker Card and Gift shop, which she closed in 2017 to focus on other ventures. Moore also began a new project of documenting the lifecycle of loons. She travels out at sunrise by kayak with camera and pen to observe and record the lifecycle of loons, her writings noted in her “Loon Journal.” Currently Moore continues her wedding, lifestyle, portrait, and reunion photography resulting in timeless album-books. She also specializes in one on one Vermont photo tours for photo enthusiasts of any experience level. These tours take participants off the beaten path where skills are developed under all conditions.
