I want to start by saying THANK YOU!
Thank you for those friends, clients, and family who have really supported my goals and vision for my photography career for the past 3+ years! Without those people complimenting my photos, I would have never had the belief in myself that I could make it this far.
3 years into my business later, here we are, still trucking along!
All of you are helping make this dream a reality.
I often times reflect on what it is that pushes me every single day to not give up on this lifestyle of being my own business. What is it that keeps me brewing with new ideas, new passions within photography, and new goals for my business?
Well, besides prayer & meditation, listening to some fancy business podcasts, and reading motivational books
(which is totally the icing on the cake), I've come to terms with what REALLY keeps me feeling refreshed and constantly working on myself and my business.
It's not what you're guessing. It's not passion. It's not wanting to succeed. It's not wanting to make money.
It is, however, proof. It's proof that I can continue to overcome what was once one of my fears in life. I literally FEARED being behind a fancy camera because I didn't fully know how to work the ins and outs of it, what the numbers all over the lens meant, or what settings did what. Sure, I had taken a few classes on film & digital photography and even did some artistic darkroom dodging and burning, but truthfully, I was just getting by with a creative eye and a love for photoshop! All those settings seemed to keep getting in my way of just taking a darn photograph for the fun of it.
*Disclaimer*
Yes, I photoshopped my way through each and every problem when I messed up a photo. Thank the Lord for photoshop!
A year out of those classes, I got lucky and landed a photography side job doing beach photos for a local company in the evenings while I worked my full time job during the day.
I know, I know... That doesn't make any sense. Why would you do something that you weren't comfortable with as a job? I did it because I wanted to keep learning. Even though I felt like it was totally confusing and not something I was great at, somehow, I got hired...
So I guessed I wasn't half bad, right?
Through that job experience, I learned that people were paying for my photos. The company I worked for paid me $25 to shoot a family and $10 to edit the images, but the families were paying the company A LOT more than that.
We have grown to amazing heights we never imagined we could grow. But amazingly enough, as we stand where we are... the place we are today looks much different than I imagined it would. I imagined that this place was the top of some grand hill and I could only look down from here... But when I got to where I am today, I can see something I never realized was here... There are more hills to climb, but the view looking back is still oh so grand... To be in a place where you can see where you've traveled so clearly now while at the same time looking ahead to even more mysterious places is oh so grand.
What a journey! 2015 has been a learning roller coaster. I took the leap of having my very own brick and morter (or more like metal) studio space alongside a few other local designers and small business owners! It was a dream come true...
