It’s my business birthday week!
February 19, 2011 a few days after I sent my first client their photos I decided to make it official. By official I mean I made a Facebook page. 🙂 I was junior in high school, shooting with a Canon G10 PowerShot I’d bought with birthday money. I spent every weekend begging my girlfriends to model for me in their backyards and plastering those photos all over Facebook.
What started as photoshoots with my friends in our backyards, has grown and evolved over the years to allow me to document friends and families’ love stories in Virginia, East Asia, and now St. Louis. My first paid photoshoot was the most nervewracking thing I’d done, but it launched me into a wholehearted pursuit of celebrating and capturing the epic and mundane love stories entangled in my client’s lives. I’ve been there for some of the most intimate moments in a couple’s life: the third person in the room as she said “YES!,” the quiet documenter of their first look on their wedding day, the last to see her before she walked down the aisle, the first to hug and exclaim over some of the most precious joys of their lives… most recently my photos were used in memorial of a precious father’s life and I was reminded, yet again, of what a great honor and privilege this job is. These photos tell stories, declare love, and capture legacy that will need to be remembered in the years to come. I am so so grateful for all this business has been and is becoming, and the joy of sharing the journey with you all.
So today I’ll take you on a walk down memory lane through 7 years in business…
2011
Canon G10 Powershot, Canon Rebel T2i / 16 years old / Families and seniors
Obsessed with railroad tracks, tilted photos, and vibrant colors.
2012
Canon Rebel T2i / 17 years old / Families and seniors
Obsessed with open fields, “model face” photos, corny jokes to get those smiles.
2013
Canon Rebel T2i / 18 years old / Families, seniors, and my first wedding!
Obsessed with parking garages, learning to pose guys, and getting 1,000 likes on Facebook.
2014
Canon 7D / 19 years old / Families and seniors, starting to love couples
Obsessed with side-of-the-road flower fields, loyally reading every wedding-based blog known to man, shooting proposals.
2015
Canon 7D / 20 years old / Families, seniors, couples
Obsessed with finding good light, couples who flirt, knowing all the best spots on campus for senior portraits.
2016
Canon 7D / 21 years old / Families, couples, weddings
Obsessed with learning to pose couples, big bridal bouquets, maternity portraits.
2017
Canon 7D / 22 years old / Families and couples, deciding to go “exclusive” and only take couples and weddings in fall 2017
Obsessed with getting to know my couples, making sessions playful, flowy dresses.
2018
I’m walking into 2018 with a brand-new Canon 6D Mark II, a deep love of telling love stories and a whole new level of confidence. The beautiful thing about reflecting back on this journey is realizing that it’s just that, a journey. I have grown and am still growing. What started as a fun hobby has become a heartbeat in my chest, and these days I come home from sessions and tell my husband, “This makes me feel alive.”
So here’s to year 7! A year for hustle and heart!
Thanks for joining me on the journey!