my journey to photography
by
andrea m.
- 3:33 PM
growing up it was a joke with a close friend that we didn't have any "cool" talents. so we decided that our talent was being a good friend. from kindergarten and up, i tried tap dancing, gymnastics, swimming, piano lessons, ballet, volleyball, running track, and art lessons. i was never the best (mostly below average) at sports and i gave up on ballet when i found out it took years to finally get toe shoes. however, i always enjoyed art - drawing, painting, sketching - but never found myself really talented in that area. i went through junior high and high school feeling like i wasn't very talented in anything, i hadn't found my niche.
my senior year in high school, in order to graduate, we had to complete a senior project. i seriously had no clue what to fill up the required 60+hrs with. i then thought about one thing i recently was interested in, photography. i didn't own a Digital SLR camera so i bought a Nikon D3000 then signed up for a photography class. i learned all about my camera and how to shoot in manual. it was a good start to learning photography, but i was missing one thing: practice!
luckily i had my willing friends and family members to model for me. i had people start asking me about doing their photos and yes, those were my first paid photography jobs. for a long time i struggled with trying to find my niche in photography. what style i wanted. what my photography business name would be. what my logo would look like. it was frustrating and i felt like i wasn't going anywhere with it.
what i've learned since i began photography, is that when you are passionate about something, you shouldn't give up on it. it took me several years to find a passion and something i am talented in. from that, it took me a couple years to truly figure out my style, logo, niche and gain a clientele for my photography business and it has been worth all the patience.
