As a young adult, Charlotte spent many hours exploring the magic of photography and developing images in the darkroom. Today, she uses her photography as a springboard for storytelling in each of her books. With Visions and Voices, her images and prose tell the story of childhood, education, homesteading, the culture of the Western Frontier, and ultimately the story of the American Spirit. In both The Cow's Boy and its sequel The Cow's Girl, her photography is wedded to the prose of daily life, drawing a picture of childhood on a family-owned cattle ranch. The North American Nature Photographers Association chose ten of Charlotte's insect photographs from Kirby's Journal: Backyard Butterfly Magic (University of South Carolina Press, 2015) for presentation at their 2010 Annual Summit show.

Charlotte serves on the non-profit boards of Montana Preservation Alliance and The Nature Conservancy of Montana. In addition to hiking, golfing, traveling, and exploring, Charlotte and her husband, Jeffrey Schutz, love playing with their children, grandchildren, extended family and friends. They divide their time between their ranch outside Clyde Park, Montana, and their home in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina.