A Photographer Posing as a (NEWBIE!) Blogger

My journey began quite a long time ago (a lady doesn’t reveal her age!). Since my dad was a photographer, I thought taking a photography class would be a great idea. I will never forget how difficult it was to understand what F-stop meant. I was glad my class was at the end of the day because my hands reeked of developer (age… ha!) and didn’t want someone asking ‘what’s that smell?’  I was able to navigate my way through the class and get a good grade. I didn’t take many interesting photos except a few of our dog, Missy. I truly feel there was a missed opportunity here but, in hindsight, the school didn’t offer any other photography classes anyway.

Time moves on, years fly by and life gets in the way… marriage, kids, pets… Never once did i think about photography. It was about 7 years ago that the bug struck me. I needed a camera. I settled on a Nikon Coolpix bridge camera (has an attached zoom lens). I didn’t think i was going to shoot more than birds and landscape.

After realizing (I thought) this camera was limiting me. From the small sensor and a jpeg file being the only output option for the pictures, I upgraded to a Sony a6400. The images I was able to create with this camera were magical in comparison to my last camera. I was taking pictures of everything!

Funny story… my husband comes home from work and mentions a chat with a coworker. He mentioned that I was taking pictures of everythingl nature, animals, landscapes, architecture… What he said next surprised me. His buddy said ‘oh, she’ll be taking pictures of people before you know it.’ I laughed so hard . Absolutely NO WAY was I going to do that! I think he only chuckled knowing what was down the line. But to me, the idea of taking pictures of people in a little studio like Olan Mills or a department store photo dept sounded absolutely awful. Why would i want to be stuck doing something so boring?!

There really was so much to learn.

I found classes at my local camera shop and signed up for one. And which one did I choose? How to shoot birds? No. How to choose your gear for an outing? No. Learn how to go on a shoot with a group? Still nope. In fact, it was the complete opposite of anything I’ve ever done. The class? Portrait photography with Scott Robert Lim (Sony ambassador). What the heck did i just do??

The classroom was full. I didn’t know anyone, let alone who Scott Robert Lim was. Just knew he was a professional photographer. He had a few models with him that were working on various poses with him. This was NOTHING like i had thought portrait photography was. No stiff poses or facial expressions. Just natural, fluid movement. I saw those images and was amazed. 

I was taking lots of notes and listening to every word he said. And then… paraphrasing.. ‘ok, let’s get up and start shooting!’ Wait, what? WHAT?!! I sat in back just to observe and take in every nugget I could. Now I had to take pictures of models. Um.. newbie here! All the other photographers there had stuffed gear bags with cameras and long lenses. I just had my little camera and a kit lens. To say I was a bit intimidated is putting it lightly. I was terrified. I made sure I was last in line, fudging with my settings and hoping I would have a decent shot. Scott Robert Lim was right up next to me helping me compose the shot and even threw in some fairy lights. Wow. I was speechless. 

A statement that sadly didn’t soak in until much later… ‘The best camera you have is the one in your hand.’

At the end of the day, I had quite the adrenaline boost from all the excitement in the class. Then I saw my pictures. ‘Did I do that? Were these actually mine?’ I successfully took pictures of a human. A HUMAN!! I still couldn’t believe it.

And here I am. I’m a portrait photographer… of people! 😁
…and birds and landscapes and architecture and still life and…

Thanks for sticking with me this far!

You’ll find samples of my work through my portfolio Portraiture

If you are interested in booking a portrait session, you can reach me here Click here