How I Got Started as a Photographer

My story is so similar to so many other photographers. I had a baby, wanted to take amazing pictures, bought a camera. I’m sure you’ve heard it before!

Back when I had zero clue and thought this was the greatest picture ever. Face palm.

My dad was a hobbyist photographer. Everyone knew that he liked to take pictures. His favorite subjects aside from his daughters, were butterflies, flowers and race cars. One day, I’ll have to blog a few of my favorites of his. I am impressed now, knowing that he mostly shot in auto and didn’t have any post-processing help. He had a much better eye for composition, interesting subjects and candid photography than I do. He also wanted to historically document things. He took pictures of landmark buildings before they were scheduled to be torn down, all of stages of his home improvement projects and things like that. I have so many pictures of his. So so many.

My parents eventually bought me a Barbie 110 camera. You can see a sweet picture of it over on my about me page. I will have to share a picture of my scrawny four-eyed self using that camera. I just kept taking pictures, as much as I could afford to have film developed. I went up to a 35 mm, then a digital camera, then another digital camera, then a DSLR. On those old digital cameras, I would edit and print every picture I took. Looking back, it was probably a giant waste of time because they were so bad to begin with, but I loved doing it.

After I had my oldest, I took a class offered by a local photographer. She taught me the basics and I dove right in. However, it wasn’t until I had my second baby a few years later, that I really started trying to take better pictures. FRUSTRATING at first! Trying to shoot a non-cooperative baby and pre-schooler while mastering manual was tough. I eventually got it and haven’t looked back since.

Still so, so bad. I was trying to get a cute picture of my new sweet boy. I got this blurry, weirdly colored mess instead!

There is still so much to learn and to try. I love that this hobby turned into some financial help for my family, and I love that I get to meet and work with so many of you even more!

For those of you that have an interest in photography, but don’t know where to start, please contact me. I teach a beginners class and also offer mentoring. I’d love to share the basics to something that has brought me such joy.