If MasterCard shot a television commercial about Tacoma photography phenom Me Ra Koh, the narrative would go something like this: “Learning photography skills from Me Ra Koh? $450. Hiring Me Ra to shoot your wedding? $10,000. Finding hope for the future from Me Ra’s images? Priceless.

Priceless, primarily, because of what you don’t see.

Yes, the things you can see will amaze you:

 • Wedding Style Magazine, the premier publication for upscale brides-to-be, hired Me Ra Koh Photography as one of its 15 exclusive advertising photographers.

 • Next month on VH1, you’ll see Me Ra and co-photographer/husband Brian, shooting nuptials in Maui for an episode of “My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding.”

 • You can buy “Refuse to Say Cheese: Capture the Story,” a DVD released last month in which Me Ra and Brian teach parents how to document a child’s life.

 • At merakoh.com you can see the international awards and read how this young couple who live in Tacoma’s Old Town neighborhood broke from the pack of good wedding photographers to emerge among the elite – and priciest – teams in the country. In less than five years.

You don’t see how Me Ra Koh reached for a lifeline from the pit of personal tragedy – twice. Or how those lifelines – writing and, now, photography – hauled her from the pit and showed her how to inspire and capture hope for others.

First came the date rape as a college freshman. That sentence doesn’t do justice to the damage done to a teenage Christian woman fresh out of Steilacoom High School.

“There was nothing out there to help date rape victims back then,” Me Ra said. “I told (my writing) professor that somebody should write a book about it, and she said, ‘Why not you?’”

Over 10 years, Me Ra chronicled that night and the aftermath and the role of her faith in the book, “Beauty Restored: Finding Life and Hope After Date Rape.”

The book launched a speaking circuit that began three months after the birth of Pascaline, the Kohs’ first child. More than 50 national TV and radio shows. Featured speaker at colleges and churches and conferences.

Me Ra might have stopped, but, “I didn’t think I could. The need was too great. I’d get a letter from a girl in Japan who found the book and saying how it helped her realize she’s not alone. I didn’t feel like I could stop.”

Then came the miscarriage. Me Ra and Brian named him Aidan. He’d be 5 years old. Me Ra could no longer write or speak publicly. So she bought a camera.

“The camera just overwhelmed me” at first, she said. “But after I miscarried, I really wanted to capture just time and the moment. I was definitely processing the grief. Not being able to hold onto life, I thought, ‘What does it mean to capture life in the moment?’” Me Ra said. Especially of Pascaline, then 2.

Me Ra, a schoolteacher by trade, and Brian, a computer technologist, had no idea Me Ra’s therapy tool would launch a new family business venture.

“It wasn’t even on the grid,” Me Ra said. “I didn’t even know what ‘aperture’ meant. Or ISO.”

So she took a basic photography class at Tacoma Community College. Friends asked her to take pictures of their weddings. She went to a workshop in San Francisco led by Bambi Cantrell, named this year as one of the Top 10 wedding photographers in the world by American Photo magazine. Me Ra spent time trailing behind the camera with Denis Reggie, the go-to wedding photographer for the famous Kennedy family.

At first, Brian carried Me Ra’s gear on shoots. Eventually, he picked up a camera too.

The break for Me Ra and Brian came two years ago when a colleague introduced them to Wedding Style Magazine

“Sometimes,” Me Ra said, “it all seems so crazy. In four-and-a-half years, photography went from a tool for therapy that I was playing with to just exploding.”

Now, the couple accepts only 12 requests a year for them to shoot weddings. The most recent one, in Boise, had a total wedding budget over $1 million. Me Ra Koh Photography also has other photographers, based in Beverly Hills and New York, who do other shoots.

But Me Ra treasures time at home. With Pascaline, now 6, and Blaze, 3, she often trains her Canon SLR on them. Which led to the couple’s most recent DVD project, “Refuse to Say Cheese.”

With the explosion of digital photography, many more people can call themselves photographers but need some help – especially mothers who want to document their children’s lives, Me Ra said.

What’s next? Me Ra will say only that she has a five-year plan.

But she doesn’t want to stray far from sharing that priceless message of hope.

“Sometimes, I feel speechless about how much good has come from (the tragedies),” she said. “To be able to pick up a camera and still be in the art of storytelling is an unexpected gift that led to so many other things … I definitely feel like I’m daily choosing to believe that there’s more in life than feeling immobilized by the trauma.”

She’s got the pictures to prove it.

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com