Everyone has a beginning
I am not one to have the most grammitically correct posts, lets face it spell check and friends are how I get through with writing anything professionally for anything. But I wanted to take a moment and talk as plane as I can get to tell a story about how I got into my career. Everyone has a beginning, some are obvious from the beginning but some like me it just happens.
When I was 13 my middle school had a photography 6 week photo class – film. I didn’t pay that much of attention. Really liked the sound of the “click” of the camera. I really didn’t know what I was doing what the numbers meant, what was a “f” stop or what was metering. I just took photos an hoped it turned out.
Well in middle school I took that same elective 4 times, I was asked to take another class to fill the time so I switched back and forth from german to photography.
2000 came around and I saved and saved and saved. I bought my first digital camera a little sony for the magical price of $950, a memory card of 125 mb was $300 it was 2.1 mega pixels
I spent all my spare money on camera things, every other year or sometimes every year I bought a new camera.
Its an addiction!
My Junior year in high school I was asked to shoot 2 weddings, it was such a rush and a great feeling. I loved it. I was the shy, quite girl but once I had a camera I was confident and a more outgoing person.
Its funny seeing the change
College taking lots of photos but didn’t ever think of it as a career path. I went to the University of Denver going for a Marketing and Law degree. I took one art history class, the rest were all about law and marketing.
My dear husband only a friend at the time asked me some interesting questions at a mutual friends wedding that made me start to think I could pursue my passion. He asked me “if money wasn’t an object what would I be?” He was expecting a lawyer, marketing president and such. So I shocked him. He asked me what was holding me back and started to encourage me .
A little over a year later I was getting married to my hubby. I didn’t care about much for my wedding: 1. photographer, 2. Dress, 3. dancing everything else was eh. So I looked long and hard for my wedding photographer. Everyone who knew me knew my wedding was going to be epic, I imagined it a million times.
So when my wedding photographer didn’t show up without a call or notice- I was devastated to say the least.
My husband and I were poor as church mice, we didn’t have jobs when we got married. We had wedding gifts that helped us through our first year. The only way we made rent was because of Erik’s Grandparents. We were poor. So when I asked Erik to empty out or savings account to spend 1750 for a camera to start a business was like ask for him to trust that we weren’t going to be bankrupt if I didn’t get launched in a hurry. I have no idea why he said yes. He had some serious faith in me.
In less than 2 months I had 15 weddings booked for the year, 8 engagement sessions underneath my belt. I had this constant feeling of having no clue what I was doing but I figured I would fake it til I make it thought and that I was going to deliver a great product even if I didn’t make money. The first wedding, I can’t even tell you how I continued after that wedding. I sent my husband out to get more batteries, I had to borrow the mother of brides camera battery. I didn’t know a great many things, like how to turn down a flash. if you looked into my flash you would be seeing spots.
I looked all over craigslist for weddings, I was lucky enough to get into a brid
al show. I brought my camera boxes to show something, I had nothing really to show.Each and every time I think of how I started was crazy. I can’t believe I am where I am now.
The workshops that turned around my photography, the amazing support of my husband that took a huge financial risk, God for making it possible. I couldn’t believe that people would choose me. Each and every wedding I wanted to offer more than just great photos but an experience to make sure their day was amazing.
It has been a journey and I am very thankful for every couple
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