And how this hobby became much more!
I will start things out with giving you a little background about me and what I have planned for the future.
I am a junior at Keene State College studying management. I’m going to school so that I can learn all about business, and how to run a successful one. I decided to get a business degree and not a photography degree because I feel that business is something you need to learn, whereas photography is something that you can learn by doing and experimenting.
I have been experimenting with photography for quite some time now. I got my first “real” camera about 4 years ago, but before then I was snapping away with some basic point and shoots. After I got that first camera I fell in love with the medium. I finally had a way to express my creativity. I was constantly taking photos, and always thinking about it; what would make a good shot, framing things in my mind and all that.
I kept practicing and taking photos, developing my eye. Once I had a good amount of photos that were considered “good” by my friends and family I decided to get some of them into an art gallery. With the support of my father, who is also an artist, (he sculpts rock!) he talked to a friend of ours who has an art gallery and was able to get some of my photos in a real art gallery! I was ecstatic that people would actually be able to see my work! This was such a great opportunity for me and I was very grateful. I didn’t care if I sold anything or not, it was just all about the self recognition that my hobby was transforming into something more.
That was such a great experience for me. It gave me an increasing drive to continue this and keep getting better and taking more photos.
I had a couple more showings as the months progressed. Then once school started back again I had to focus on that. But one day in class my teacher saw some of my photos and was really impressed. As the semester progressed I showed him some more photos and then he came out and asked me if I wanted to shoot his wedding! I was surprised that someone would ask me to do that without having any experience in the wedding photography field. That was what gave me the first little interest into the whole wedding photography world. I didn’t end up shooting his wedding because I was away on vacation when it was occurring.
Once I had the thought that I could possibly do this I began to research everything about wedding photography. I was incessant. I was constantly looking on the web, reading blogs, how two’s and watching countless hours of YouTube videos. All the while I was taking more and more photos practicing my craft and putting all of what I learned into practice.
It was then in September of 2011 that I shot my first wedding as a professional photographer. After that first wedding I knew that I had what it took to do this for real. I was thankful that my first clients loved the photos I took.
In the past year and a half I shot a couple more weddings and booked a couple more for this year and the next!
I am excited with this growing business and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
