How this Business Began
As for me, I never dreamed of being a photographer.
I’m type A, logical, numbers, and I never labeled myself as a free-spirited creative. I was going in the direction of courthouses; government! I left a paralegal position in 2011 when my husband came home from his second deployment because I knew we were getting stationed somewhere new shortly after his homecoming. He came home, we got orders to South Carolina, and news I was PREGNANT shortly after! Still at this point, no plans for photography and this was just five years ago.
After we moved to Beaufort, South Carolina, and our little boy was born, my mom bought me a Canon Rebel t2i. I am so grateful because I was taking some AWFUL pictures of our first days together with a little old point and shoot. I had no idea what I was doing with that rebel, but I mastered it fast. I realized the limits of my kit lens quickly and soon received a 50mm 1.8. Me and that rebel and that 50 1.8 did some really great things that I’d still stand by today, but as starter cameras go, there are definitely limits.
Fast forward to the purchase of the Canon 6D, my first full-frame (but not my last). Throughout that year I started picking up L series prime lenses. The 35, the 100, the 135. I focused on families but never really felt like I was doing what I wanted to. A sweet friend (and one of my very first family clients) asked me to photograph her wedding, I charged just enough for the gear I would need, and I was hooked.
That was in the fall of 2013. I had my second and third wedding in the spring of 2014, and then weddings were EXPLODED! Everything had to change. I needed to buy more lenses for weddings, I needed to lose all of my family marketing and make it weddings. I needed to lose my family pricing guide and make a bridal guide. I needed to meet vendors, to meet other wedding photographers, to advertise for weddings, to change the ENTIRE business. It was so much work but man, seeing your hard work flourish is so rewarding knowing that YOU did that!
The long story short of how photography began- I became a mom. I couldn’t bear to go back to a law firm, I couldn’t do it. I took a chance, sometimes that’s what we need to do. Thank the Lord it paid off!
