Brief story of my beginnings

When I first wanted to start photography, I had just a film camera. I bought it off ebay along with a lens and decided I would start off doing free shoots, you know, to build up a portfolio. This was all just last year, around October. Before that, I had never, ever, picked up a SLR camera. For the longest time, I took my little point and shoot everywhere I went, snapping pictures of nature,trips, parties, dinner's, new friends, etc. My film camera was the only SLR I ever used, and to be honest with you, I had no clue what the heck I was doing. All I did was PRAY the rolls of film I invested in weren't a waste of money. I was afraid my pictures would come out black or blurry or funky looking.


Meet Tatiana:

She was one of my "guinea pigs", that would tell me whether I really sucked at this and don't ever pick up a camera again, or if I should follow my heart and keep going. She was the first person who I pointed my film camera and shot, shot away and prayed the film wasn't a waste of money. I held my breath the whole time as I went to picked up the photos. Anxious and nervous at the same time. I wanted to cry as soon as I saw them, both happy and sad tears. Alot of them had come out dark, but when I saw the decent one's, my little heart jumped with joy! I could not believe I actually had some good one's! I must have been doing something right, but I had no clue what I was doing during the shoot. I was just posing, shooting, and praying.

After Tatiana, I decided to keep going. I shot about two couples that were friends of mine and asked them if they could dress up in their wedding attire. Meet Kyle and Chivonne:

My rolls of film were really taking a toll with my wallet at this point. I still didn't know what I was doing with my film camera, but just like with the other session, we had tons of fun. I felt so happy shooting and it was really what kept me going. From this session, I booked my first wedding. I made it clear to the bride that I had never shot a wedding and that I had never shot in digital, but that I would be buying a digital SLR camera in a few weeks and that I would not be shooting her wedding in film. It's as if she didn't hear what I was telling her because she booked me to shoot her wedding. I read every photography forum on the internet and read thousands of blogs and read all the technical things there is to know. I FINALLY purchased my first DSLR in January, a Canon 40d, about one month before the wedding!! My husband could not believe what I was getting myself into, and neither could I, but I felt like this bride had faith in me, in my ability to succeed, and that only motivated me more to not let her down, and not let myself down.

The real reason for this post was because I sat down today and starting looking through my folders of photos and Chivonne's and Kyle's session stuck out to me again. It made me think of the things I know now that I had no clue about then. You can never know everything about photography. If you want to be in a creative industry, you have to keep on taking new things and growing. I started editing a few of the shots from their shoot and I really want to share them! They are in film but I just love them!

This one is a little different processing style to my usual taste but I still like it :)