This is a question I'm asked frequently.....How'd you get started in taking high school senior pictures?
Let's go back to 1978 when I got my first camera for my birthday. I remember exactly where I was and what kind of camera it was. I was 9 years old (you can do the math and figure out how old I am).
We were vacationing in Saugatuck, MI at a relative's house on Lake Michigan. It was a Kodak 110 film camera. There was no such thing as digital photography.
I enjoyed taking landscape pictures of the beauty of God's creation all around me. I took that camera on every family vacation. Occasionally, I'd take pictures of people, but I was mostly interested in capturing the world through my eyes.
A few years later, I was exposed (no pun intended) to Ansel Adam's black and white landscape photography. We had a family friend who had a giant original Ansel Adams print over their baby grand piano. I could stare at his masterpiece for hours and get lost in the details.
Seeing his work deepened my love for landscape photography and motivated me to learn as much as possible. When I went to college, I jumped at the chance to take a black and white film class. I was officially hooked. I remember my final exam for photography. We had to write an essay - not take pictures. I wrote in that essay that one day I wanted to be a professional photographer.
Life happened. I fell in love, got married and had children. Photography took a back seat other than taking occasional pictures of our children. Digital photography still wasn't a thing. Taking pictures wasn't as easy as picking up your camera and snapping a few pictures being able to see them instantly.
Eventually, I got a DLSR when they became affordable. That's a fancy term for a digital camera. I resumed my love of capturing the world through my eyes with landscape pictures.
I took my creative outlet one step further by pairing my landscape pictures with a devotional on a blog. I called it "The World Through Blue Eyes". (Hence my current business name - BlueEyedPics). I shared my blog on social media and the word was officially out there for the wold to see that I was a photographer.
People from my community knew it and would often comment on what I was doing. However, one day changed the course of my photography passion.
A couple from my church knew what I was doing and asked if I'd consider taking their son's senior pictures.
I tried to explain that people care what they look like, mountains and trees don't. I agreed to try. Again, I was hooked.
Taking pictures of high school seniors was the perfection intersection of how God wired me. It allowed me to use my ability to connect with people, put them in a landscape setting and capture who they were in that exact moment.
My business grew pretty quickly and all I wanted to do was get better at my craft. I studied more about the art of photography as I continued to refine my own style. That's the beauty of photography - it's an art. What style appeals to someone, might not appeal to someone else.
I've been in business for 13 years and nothing brings me greater joy than seeing my images turned into beautiful artwork my clients can enjoy.
Except there is one more thing that brings me great joy....seeing my landscape artwork hanging on a wall in a house.
In 2016, I had the chance to shoot with Dave Allen, a renowned landscape photographer, in the mountains of NC along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a weekend I'll never forget.
I printed a few pictures from that memorable weekend and the artwork is hanging in various houses of my family members.
For now, I'm committed to my seniors and their parents making sure they have beautiful artwork so they can remember their child long after they've moved out of the house onto the next leg of their journey.
Pictures freeze a few moments in time and have the ability to stir great emotions within us whether it's pictures of your loved ones or a majestic scene of God's creation.
I should add that I didn't do all of this alone. I had a wonderful support system of family and close friends who encouraged me constantly and were by my side during the aches and pains of growing my business. Being an entrepreneur isn't for the light hearted, but the rewards have been beyond anything I could have imagined. All because I took a step in faith and followed a dream.
Who knows, maybe one day I'll take the dream one step further and begin to sell my landscape work.
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