Hey everyone! This week’s blog is all about ME. If you have a look at my about section on my website, you will notice that it is pretty short and sweet. In fact, I’m not short and I don’t taste sweet! But, I do think I’m SUPER FUNNY! Unfortunately, my husband and kids don’t agree. Jokes aside, I love being silly and my sarcasm is pretty on point, in my opinion.

Ok so your funny.

Yes and I’m a social butterfly. I love meeting new people and I can talk your ears off. I do talk a lot during my sessions for different reasons. It helps make people feel at ease with me, it can make the session fun and quick or it’s to catch up with a repeat client. I will even ask you to talk amongst yourselves to get natural portraits of your family dynamic. For example, what’s for supper tonight?, who is the silliest in the family?, what is your favorite ice cream flavor, etc.

What else?

I’m a creative person and photography is an outlet for me. But I also paint, draw, knit, crochet, sew, woodwork, decorate, create logo designs, sell DIY prints, sing, dance, etc. I probably forgot 1 or 2 things too (Like my bionic eyes who can hang pictures without measuring, but that’s a skill). I find photography fulfills me because I get to find new places and have different subjects every time. It keeps me on my feet since I can’t study beforehand. When I look through my lens, that’s where the work starts.

When did you start?

In my teens. I would take my parents’ camera and set up a photoshoot in the living room with my friends. Receiving my prints was like Christmas every time. I have albums upon albums of these portraits. I had even started practicing the art of taking a selfie (They were always blurry!). All my sleepovers, parties and events are documented in those albums. My parents often bought me disposable cameras when I would go off to my friends. When I started making my own money, I purchased my first camera with an internal memory. I have 100s of CDs of all these pics backup in case my computer crashes. After, when I was a young adult I started modeling. That helped me a lot to learn about how to pose.

Becoming a mom.

By the time I became a mama, I had purchased my first DSLR camera and was having photoshoots every week to capture my new baby. I met young moms, in day groups, who would let me practice on their kids. After that, it’s pretty history. For many years I would take family portraits of friends and family for FREE. I didn’t even have a website or Facebook page to show these. After I had my second daughter, I felt like I was beginning to take decent portraits and upgraded my camera for a more expensive model and started offering my free services to more friends. And before I purchased my current camera, I invested in different photography courses. Anything from how to shoot in manual, editing, marketing, etc. And finally felt confident enough to make it official.

It still took years.

Deciding to make a second career out of photography was a huge family decision. I had three kids at that point and was working full-time as a teacher. I’m very happy I did it though. I know I could’ve started before, but I didn’t think that the quality of my work was comparable to photographers I admired. I’m grateful I got to practice first and learned so much from those first experiences. Today, my work is valued and I get lots of bookings, but making a business successful takes time and money. It isn’t always consistent. I’m still far from my end goal so I keep pushing out and advertising all my sessions like when I started. ANY SHARES OR COMMENTS on my Facebook/Instagram pages are appreciated and encouraged. You don’t have to purchase anything to support this local business!

CL