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Ah, the inaugural blog post for Photography Awesomesauce. I’ve had this place running as a simple storefront for awhile, but the need to write to you guys just beckons me and so you see the huge change in the website I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the last week. I could sit and tell you about all the new features there are and the NEW pricing on many items in The Shop, but I won’t bore you. I’d rather start off this blog talking about something that’s near and dear to my heart…
…photography.
My journey to becoming a photographer was rough and full of bumps, often times it still is. I have so many things that I feel I learn, change, and adapt to on a daily basis and that’s part of the appeal of running my own business. When something isn’t working I can change it without being accountable to anyone except myself.
I’ve always had a camera and most of my life I was pretty terrible at photography, but I liked having photos of all the long drawn-out, 3 week long camping trips my family and I would take when we were kids. My dad, being the boy scout of the century and a research scientist for the Forest Service, brought us all up with a great appreciation of the environment. As a result I tend to be a bit of a ‘hippie’ at times. These camping trips would take us across the states and back again visiting as many national parks, memorials, national forests and all things of that sort. As I became a teenager I enjoyed the long car trips less and less, but as an adult I miss them increasingly. Seeing nature at its best is why I needed my own crappy film camera as a kid and it’s why I now have boxes full of photos of Mount Rushmore that are terribly composed, all blue sky with just the corner being the tip of the mountain. I can’t say I ever had a passion or talent toward photography.
I never took photography classes in high school. I took every single other art class that was available instead. I went to college to become a state licensed art teacher because I thought this would be the solution to being able to be an artist and make enough money to live by. I took one photography course about film photography. My professor told me I should pick that as my concentration with teaching and I just laughed him off and told him I would rather do painting instead. Turns out painting is my weakest art form and I should have probably taken his advice and done photography instead. It also turns out that while I’m a very good teacher, I really hate it. I spent a few years teaching and making art on the side. I had stuff in some pretty awesome art shows. What I really needed though was a good camera so whenever I saw a lovely landscape or an interesting twisty tree I could take a photo and use it later as reference for paintings I liked to do. Trees have been an ongoing theme in my life for some time. I can’t exactly say why, but I love them. Ever seen the part in Ferngully where they put their hands on the tree and claim they can feel its pain? I’ve done that more than once. I learned that I don’t have the superpower to feel a tree’s pain.
My husband was nice enough to buy me a cheap starter DSLR and I guess that was that. I started taking photos of trees and other things that interested me with the kit lens and then I remembered how much I loved figure drawing in college and thought, hey maybe I can photograph people even though I have zero experience and no idea what I’m doing.
So that’s how the story goes.
The point is, it took me a long time to learn how to use the camera correctly, how to photograph in manual and figure out the business side of things. I had no help. If I did, it might have saved me hours and hours of reading and late nights away from my family. Starting a photography business was the most time consuming thing I’ve ever done. It was something I had no experience with, but I’m so proud of how well I’ve done and it wouldn’t have been possible without the patience of my husband and family.
My hope is that this website can be a resource for your business. Instead of blogging about the business side of things on my own photography blog it makes a bit more sense to do it here and connect the dots. Hopefully I can help you along your way. If you’re like me and all of this didn’t just come naturally for you, you’ll know it’s work. Hard work. If I can save you one night a week with your family and your kids because you learned it here then I’ve done my job.
Anyway, welcome to the new look, the new features, and the new shop. Enjoy, don’t ever be afraid to ask a question. While I may not have all the answers I’ll do my best to point you to a resource that can help. So don’t be shy!
