Laura Roettiger - Photographer, Teacher, and Author

Laura Roettiger is a reading specialist and award-winning elementary educator from Chicago, IL who weaves her passion for STEM learning and fostering kindness into stories for children. Her roots in Chicago remain deep, but now her home and heart are firmly settled in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with her Goldendoodle, Charlie.

Laura is the author of two books, An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story, a picture book told in the form of a newscast which skillfully balances the serious subject of forest fires with compassion and humor to help children navigate this important topic through the real events of 2020. Extensive back matter about Australian animals and forest fires makes this book perfect for educational settings. Aliana Reaches for the Moon, a picture book that draws inspiration from the moon and the curiosity of children, invites children to be creative, explore, and experiment.

1. What was your favorite subject in school?

My favorite subjects were reading and creative writing, but handwriting was a challenge for me. I’m left-handed, which was less common then, and I was in school before there were computers. My teachers didn’t know how to teach us to write left-handed, so my papers were often full of smudges. It was a different era. ~sigh~

2. What is your favorite type/style of photography?

I grew up visiting the Art Institute of Chicago so often that I knew which rooms held my favorite artwork. My mom went to the university across the street from the museum and we took advantage of the many opportunities living in a major metropolitan area allowed. I appreciate a wide variety of art and photography but my heart was first captured by the painters The Art Institute of Chicago is known for, like Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, and Grant Wood. I’d love to know what your favorite art styles are.

3. What inspires you?

I love this question and I ask it in my blog interviews.

I am inspired by almost everything! Too many things to name, I would need to live forever to satisfy my attempt to understand all the things I’m curious about and even then … so I’ll give one example, I love being out in nature with my Goldendoodle and our BFFs. I like looking at and photographing the same plants and mountain views during different seasons and noticing the way they change. I hike on the same trails and sometimes there are new buds on a plant, followed by full flowers then, a few petals browning, and a week or month later they’re covered in an invasion of an interesting insect. As the seasons change, some plants bloom again, others go to seed, and the landscape is ever changing; I like looking at the micro (up close) and the macro (big picture) of my view. This can be in nature or in architecture, or whatever I’m exploring. That’s what draws me to photography.

4. What is a bad drawing/photograph and what is an ok drawing/photograph?

Sometimes when I am taking pictures, I can’t tell what they will look like until I download them from the camera to my iPad. Then I can see that it’s fuzzy or I cut off part of what I was trying to capture. This happens most often when I am trying to take pictures of the full moon or a bird in flight. The nice part about digital photography is you can find out what you got and try again. I just delete the ones that didn’t work.

5. When I'm finished, where do I put my name?

I put my website along the bottom of each photograph so that people can find me if they see one of my pictures on social media.

6. How do you decide on composition?

Since I’m a photographer, I often take several shots of the same thing and then figure out what looks the most interesting. If I zoom in close on the center of a flower or crop out the parts that distract from what I want to focus on, then the photograph shows an image of what I am seeing. The person looking at the photo might now see exactly what I hope for, at least that’s the idea. Sometimes, a wide shot offers a better view so you can see the perspective; it’s about balance.

7. Do you always have a camera with you?

When I moved to Colorado in 2016, I had an iPhone with a camera in but it didn’t have a very powerful zoom and everywhere I looked there were new beautiful things to photograph. I went to a camera store and wanted to buy the best camera I could afford. The sales person wisely told me “the best camera was the one I would have with me all the time.” Yes there are bigger, more powerful cameras with interchangeable lenses but they are heavy and I would never have them when I’m out hiking or be able to set up a shot, so I have a small hand-held camera with a powerful zoom that isn’t much bigger than an iPhone and I can fit it in my pocket. I don’t always have it with me, but I definitely take it when I’m going out to take photos that require a zoom. The iPhone camera has improved quite a bit since that time as well. ;)

8. What kinds of children's books do you like the most?

I love children’s books and since I’ve had two published and written several others that haven’t sold, I know how challenging the process is and let me say there are great books for all kinds of readers and reasons. For me, a book needs to touch my heart and that can be through humor, making me think in a new way, or from learning something new. A great children’s book has to be one I’ll want to read over and over. As a teacher, I love when I’m reading a book and ideas are bubbling up of ways I can use it for teaching. I’m not necessarily talking about nonfiction; I like narrative nonfiction or informational fiction, where facts have been woven through a story. I’m also talking about theme, setting, message, and the emotions of the main character and others around them. Can I use it to compare and contrast with another book? Does it have poetic language? Is it written in an interesting format? Does it work well as a way to introduce a new topic we are learning about in science or social studies?

9. What inspired you to try children's literature?

I had always planned to be a writer, but the path to get here was long and twisty to say the least. Skipping ahead to the stepping stones that brought me here: I became a teacher in Chicago after returning to school earning a masters with extra coursework in reading instruction. After a few years in the classroom at different grade levels, I became the reading specialist in a K-8 school, working with small groups of students in all grades. This was truly the perfect fit, and I wrote with my students and for my students as part of our regular lessons. In 2016, I left full-time teaching and moved to Colorado with a new goal of writing for publication. Since 2016, I’ve mentored first-year teachers, tutored, and volunteered at the public library. I am active in the local SCBWI community, joined 12x12, I have critique groups, and am the co-leader of a promotion group.

I thought I knew about writing for children after years of teaching experience. Spoiler Alert. I still had a lot to learn and am not done yet!

10. What do you do when you feel stuck?

If I’m stuck on a specific manuscript, I might set it aside and work on something else because I always have more than one project going. Sometimes, I just need to take a break and get outside and move. I love being active and that can mean a hike outdoors or putting on a song and having a dance party in the house. Music and movement are an excellent combination to open up pathways in the brain and get the blood flowing.

Laura, thank you for your excellent advice about photography and writing! Please follow her on her social accounts, and you can find her fun, informational picture book, An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story, in our Bookshop. Keep shining!