I’ve loved taking pictures and looking through photo albums ever since I can remember. Photos hold a lot of my memories and I love to reminisce. Despite this love for photography, I never imagined myself doing it professionally and often get asked how I got started in this business. While I’m still fairly new in the world of professional photographers, I thought I would share my story (and some of my first “professional” pictures) for those inquiring minds and other newbies who are looking to take their hobby to the next level!

All throughout college I wanted to have a “nice” camera. You know, one of those where you can switch the lenses and you look like you know what you’re doing. Right. I started saving money that I received from Christmas and birthdays, and began talking to friends that were into photography to find out what a good starter digital slr camera would be for me. When I finally saved up enough money I decided to go with a Canon EOS Rebel XS body, which came with an 18-55mm lens.

I was so excited when I got this camera that I started taking pictures of EVERYTHING. I was quite nervous about breaking it, so I would barely let anyone else touch it. If I did let someone take a picture with it they had to put the camera strap around their neck! Looking back now, I realize how ridiculous I was. :-) When our friends Josh and Trista came to visit us one weekend they were kind enough to do let me do a little photo shoot with them so that I could practice shooting actual people! Here are a couple shots of them…

That was in April 2009. I spent the rest of the spring and summer practicing with my camera and reading through the manual front to back to learn how to work it to it’s full potential. By the end of the summer I decided I wanted to put myself out there and do some more shoots. And how did I go about doing that? I kid you not, I put an ad on craigslist! Not what I would recommend to beginning photographers now, (I would just advertise on Facebook to family and friends), but it ended up working for me. I picked one weekend, chose the locations, and charged a ridiculously low fee for a session and a disc of the images. James came with me since I was meeting with complete strangers and we had a really fun day! Here is an image from each of the 3 sessions I shot that weekend…

I’ll be honest, it’s kind of nerve-wracking to share photos from my very first sessions, but I really want to show where I started from and put it all out there! All of the above pictures were shot with the Rebel camera body and the kit lens that came with it, as mentioned previously. At this point and time I didn’t own Lightroom or Photoshop to edit in, so I used Picasa, which is a basic editing program that you can download for free. I posted some of the pictures on Facebook and the photo sharing website I made for myself through Shutterfly to start getting the word out there.

Around that same time I was contacted by a good friend’s younger brother and his fiance about shooting their engagement pictures. I knew that if things turned out well from their session there was good possibility that they would book me to shoot their wedding. I had so much fun shooting their session and knew that it was something I wanted to continue doing. Molly and Richie ended up really liking their pictures and booked me for their wedding a few months later!

(above image also shot with Canon Rebel XS and 18-55mm kit lens)

In October 2009 we moved from Cincinnati to Greenwood, IN for James’ new job. Before we even moved I contacted a couple of wedding photographers in the area to see if any of them needed an assistant or 2nd/3rd shooter. I wanted to learn from someone who knew what they were doing and get some hands on experience. I ended up getting the opportunity to work with Rich from Bradbury Photography and dove in head first, second shooting a wedding with him the first weekend we moved to town! He had just lost an assistant and saw enough potential in me to teach me and let me use his equipment. I second shot 4 weddings with him in about a 5 week period and learned more in those 5 weeks than I had in the whole 5 months prior!

In December 2009 James and I headed to Cincinnati to shoot Molly & Richie’s wedding. At that time I had 2nd shot about 5 or 6 weddings, which really helped me feel comfortable shooting my first one as the lead photographer. I purchased a 70-200 mm lens and a Speedlite 580 EX II external flash with the money I earned from 2nd shooting. Rich also led me borrow a camera body and some other equipment so that we would have enough to work with (renting is also a good option). Here are a couple of my favorite shots from their day…

After shooting their wedding I knew I had found what I wanted to do! I didn’t necessarily think at the time that I would create a business of my own, but unfortunately second shooting doesn’t exactly provide enough income to live off of… I continued doing it though to gain experience and learn from a pro. I got a job working in an elementary school (my degree is in education) and started taking on portrait clients on the side. By the end of May 2010, with James’ support, I decided to take my business full-time. I created my website through Showit and this blog through ProPhoto blogs to share my work.

I knew that with living in a new area and not knowing a ton of people I would have a little bit of a hard time getting clients, so I decided to place an ad on The Knot in hopes of booking some weddings. It turned out to be very helpful and I spent the summer of 2010 booking weddings (mostly for 2011), shooting engagement sessions, family sessions, and senior sessions. By the time Fall rolled around the majority of my inquiries and bookings had started coming from referrals– which is definitely the best way to get business!

Here’s a look at some of the fun I had in 2010… you can check out my 2010 in Review post here.

I am SO excited for what’s to come this year and can’t wait to work with all of the amazing clients that we have booked so far! I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey and maybe even got some helpful tips if you’re just starting your business. I am the first to say that I am continually learning every day, but I am more than happy to share what has worked for me so far! Next week I’ll be sharing other ways to learn and network in the photography world.

Hope you have a great start to your week!

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