Stay-at-home mom focuses on photography
Staff writer
Inheriting a Canon camera from her father-in-law helped Treena Lucero find her niche in life through photography.
Treena was born in Moundridge and raised in Oklahoma. She is the third of four children born to Betty Dvorak.
The family moved to the Hillsboro area when Treena was a freshman, and she graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1994.
After graduation, Treena worked odd jobs that included being a clerk and group manager at Alco.
For a brief stint of nine months, Treena lived in Missouri but later moved back to Hillsboro, living on the farm of her grandmother, the late May Hegarty.
In 1997, she married Mayo Lucero, who was from the Lincolnville-Burdick area. He is a machinist at AgCo in Hesston.
When their daughter Kennedy was born, Treena did odd jobs cleaning but was mostly a stay-at-home mother.
"I worked for the Amoco gas station in Lincolnville for a short time," Treena said. "But they closed down because the highway came through and took out the gas station."
In 1998, the couple moved to town and in 1999 bought their first home.
"That's when I started doing photography taking pictures of my daughter," Treena said.
As she thought back to those beginning days, Treena said, "I took really terrible pictures of my daughter, but I kept on practicing."
During that time, Treena said she enjoyed doing scrapbooking. She also was involved in the MOPS program for four years until her daughter, Kennedy started first grade at Hillsboro Elementary School.
The first test of her ability as photographer came when she was asked to take pictures at a friend's wedding.
She said someone saw her work from the wedding which landed Treena her first "real" job — taking pictures of the 4-H royalty court at the 2000 Marion County Fair.
Treena took classes at the Wichita Center for the Arts to perfect her talent.
She said she improved composition-wise and said, "It's just amazing looking back at the pictures I took in the beginning and how terrible they looked, but I thought they were great back then."
