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How I got Started with Photography
When I was a kid, about 8 years old I think, I stole my mom’s camera. I don’t remember anything about that camera except that it needed film. I wanted to take some pictures on it, so I took it from her room and hid it under my bed until I had an opportunity to use it. I had it for about an hour when I started feeling so guilty that I gave it back to my mom and told her what I did. I didn’t even took a picture, and I never have been good at breaking the rules. I don’t tell that story because I always wanted to be a photographer because I didn’t. I wanted to be a lot of things when I was little, including a veterinarian, a jockey, a figure skater, and a horse trainer, but I didn’t start thinking about photography until high school. I just love that story now because of where I ended up!
When I was 13 or 14 my grandpa gave me a film camera. It had two modes: regular and panorama. I liked taking pictures on our family vacations, but almost never took pictures of people; just landscapes and flowers. I liked traveling, documenting those travels, and scrapbooking my photos when I got home. The problem was, I didn’t have a job. Film (and getting it developed) gets expensive after a while when you have no money. A couple years later, I asked my parents for a digital camera and got a 4 megapixel Canon Powershot that probably cost $100. And it was awesome!
Fast forward to summer 2008. The summer before my senior year of high school. The timing couldn’t have been better, considering I was starting college applications in the fall. My family took a two-week RV trip out west, and I brought my trusty Canon Powershot. At the visitors center at Yosemite National Park I bought a wildlife photography book for about $15. Did I end up becoming a big name in wildlife and landscape photography? Not even a little bit. But that book taught me all about shooting in manual mode (yes, my point and shoot had manual mode), and that was a turning point for me. I started being able to get shots with that little camera that just weren’t possible shooting in auto. I could set my shutter speed. I could choose my focal point. I could make the photo have a shallow depth of field. My good photos started to be intentional instead of happy accidents, and I started to think that maybe this was something I wanted to do, go to college for. I still like the photos from that trip, but they are not nearly as good as I thought they were:
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At some point that year I tried out to be on my high school’s newspaper staff as the photographer. I had to show the advisor a portfolio of my best photographs to be considered. Some of the other students saw my photos, and I’ll never forget what they said: “Wow! You must have a great camera!” Since I had probably the cheapest digital camera money could buy, I took it as a compliment. Surely only someone who had some talent could take those photos on a 4 megapixel point and shoot, right?? I took that statement and ran with it.
When I applied to colleges I applied to a few high-ranking photojournalism schools. One in Ohio, one in Missouri, and my beloved UNC. For a while I thought I wanted to go far away for college, but I’m so glad I decided to stay close to my family and become a Tar Heel. My time at UNC was formative in so many ways, but especially for my photography career. I didn’t get far into the photojournalism program before I realized that though I loved photography, newspaper photography wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy hunting for a story and asking people to let me into their lives to document it. I wondered many times if I should change my major and almost did my junior year!! But I decided to stick with it, and I’m glad I did! Even after I decided to go a different direction with my photography, I learned valuable skills and a documentary style in the photojournalism program that would have taken a lot longer to develop on my own.
I had a friend in the program who interned for a wedding photographer one summer, and I wondered if that was something I could do. I interned with a different local wedding photographer the next summer, and it was the perfect way to get started. Starting my own business was never something I thought I would do, and there have certainly been some ups and downs. There were times I wondered why I got myself into this, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. After 4 years I’ve learned so much about photography, how to run a business, and how to take care of my clients, and I can’t wait to see where the next 4 years lead!
