Toward the end of the summer of 2016 I found myself giving my two weeks notice to my job where I was a reporter, the job I had lined up following that position ended up telling me after I placed my noticed that they were folding the position into another title, department, and would not be hiring, so I was effectively out of a job. It was then that I started considering what I could be as a photographer, started researching and trying to figure out what a true business entailed.
In case you are wondering there are hundreds of blogs on starting a photography business, if you should, how you should do it, and so on. That was overwhelming and I decided to do my thing, and that is much of what happened. I designed a logo to match the idea in my mind of four years prior, applied for my LLC, and began designing a website, arranging photography sessions and finding the tools and contracts needed.
For the most part my baby was born, my career as a photographer delved into rodeo photography, the beginnings of commercial shooting, and working with those aspiring to be models. I have spent the last two years working through many different kinds of photography looking for the ones that felt right to devote my business too.
I have enjoyed the challenges that came with realizing my dream, becoming involved with numerous charities and being able to use my passion for photography to preserve the moments for others.
I have often been asked how I came to be a photographer and as the last few blog entries have recounted it wasn’t at first a true goal more of luck and chance. It wasn’t even even on my radar as a child as art and writing were always where I saw myself but as I learned the eyes of a child only plan for what they can immediately envision and not the intricacies of life.
I learned that there will be many jobs in a persons life and passions will change and evolve. Who we are and goals have our childhood selves will expand or be forgotten. There are days I dream of being an author, of penning a novel not just academic research for a peer reviewed journal. There are my many dreams for this career of mine with my camera in hand as well some I never foresaw and some I aspire to reach.
I do know that while I still have far to go to achieve my goals I have had an awesome and storied start. For two years I have photographed, I have traveled and been privileged to photograph things I could have only dreamed of at one point in time. 2019 will be a continuation of hard work and opportunities but I am ready for the next phase of my dreams that were first imagined in a that South African harbor.
