This month's cover photographer, Lisa Lefkowitz, specializes in what she calls "fine-art wedding photography." A wedding is "one of the rare times that people go out and hire a photographer to document their lives," she says. "It's a special experience to be trusted with that."

Lefkowitz, who has been based in San Francisco for eight years, started shooting pictures when she was 16. Growing up in New York City, she got her first education in photography at the public library, where she pored through classic photography books. That's when she discovered the work of photographer Sally Mann, whose studies of her son and two daughters were collected in the groundbreaking book, Immediate Family.

In her business, Lefkowitz often finds herself shooting intimate family moments. But what still inspires her about Mann's images is that they say so much and are "so simple and elegantly composed," she says.

"I first saw Sally Mann's work as a teenager, and was mesmerized by her elegant, evocative images. The way that she illustrates the fragile lines that border childhood captivated me. This image, 'Night Blooming Cereus,' was one that drew me into her world of emotional mystery. It was the first time I saw that an image could reveal a deeper meaning."