I was asked to interview for SDVoyager in March 2024. I had to tell how I started my photography business and why I chose a creative career path (although I have held other full-time marketing jobs throughout the years too).
I scoured through my blog and Google Drive for a pre-written answer to this. I had NOTHING. I couldn’t use chatGPT for this either. So, I took the time to write out how and why I started my business – beginning from when I was very, very young. Here we go!
early childhood
As a toddler and young child, I was constantly begging my parents to let me behind their hefty digital VHS camera to film my brothers on our fake news channel broadcasts. You can find me in countless home videos shouting “Can I see? Can I see?” as I stood in front of the lens to take over whatever my parents were filming.
My Aunt Sarah, who is 10+ years older than me, was inspiring to me (and continues to be to this day). She is an incredible musician and creative at heart. She pursued photography when I was around 8 years old, and seeing that we both held this interest, she gave me a couple of photography lessons so I could learn, too. Her camera seemed so fascinating. The photos she produced brought magic to the world around me. Her black and white prints stilled time, and each portrait held simple and stunning details. To say she motivated me from a young age would be an understatement.
early youth
My parents started to identify my interest and bought cameras for me throughout my life. I would have playdates with my friends in middle school and direct photoshoots of us, including the classic self-timer portrait from the ground (pre-tripod or selfie stick era) featuring our double chins. I would print the photos, print them for my homemade scrapbooks, and gift the photo prints to my friends. No post-editing was done here, but the passion continued.
When another aunt married her sweetheart in San Diego during my early youth, I brought my point-and-shoot digital camera to take pictures of them throughout the day and printed photos for them to bring home. Of course, they were masterpieces and heirloom treasures they would keep in the entryway of their home forever! Joking aside, they appreciated the gesture and were some of the first to give me confidence in my interest and – one day – skill.
high school
During 8th grade, I joined the yearbook club and during high school, the newspaper club to work on taking photos of others and “publishing” them. Granted, I had to write articles for the high school newspaper despite that being incredibly intimidating as I worked alongside AP literary students who have since pursued careers in English, Writing, Publishing, Lit, etc. I always looked at our local community college photography classes but never enrolled in a class because I didn’t have a DSLR camera and didn’t think to ask or save up money for one. Lame, I know. I had a lot of other hobbies at the time!
I obsessed over finding my senior photographer because I wanted them to be magical. I appreciated someone with that talent and though there were quite a few to choose from, I chose Heather Armstrong Photography. I will never regret that decision! Still love my photos to this day.
college
I said for years I wanted start my photography business. But, I was scared! I made excuses forever because I still didn’t have the funds (now I laugh at the mere price of $500-$1000 it would have cost) to buy my own full-frame DSLR camera or to take classes in manual photography lessons.
Once I entered college, I would sign up for photography classes and drop out (before a “W” resulted on your transcript). It didn’t feel like an avenue that could provide financially for me in the future. I started giving up my dream to pursue a more traditional career path.
In college, at BYU-Idaho I studied Business Management with an emphasis in marketing. In my last semester of school, I took a digital marketing class where the only objective was to start a business online and drive traffic to the site using paid ads. I took this as my long-awaited chance to start a photography business.
Well, I had NO professional photos to use. So, I bought a used, cropped-frame Canon camera and began to ask friends to model for me for my website content. From there, I realized I didn’t want to stop! I found a mentor who runs a very successful photography business in Idaho to this day. She taught me the ropes from posing to editing.
See my early days of photography below or on my Instagram reel or scroll to the end of my IG for fun.
Light and airy was KING. I still think these are beautiful!
career moves
I moved to Utah after graduation and officially launched my business in April 2018. It was a dream.
I dabbled in all sorts of photography and finally landed in the wedding space. It was so fantastic to work with couples from their early twenties to early thirties in Utah and eventually branching out to other states. I began to travel for weddings, until covid-hit (that’s a different story!). I was taught valuable lessons through photography courses and mentorships (namely from Anna Christine Photography in Idaho and Kendra Bird Photography in Utah).
I made mistakes. I’ve changed styles over and over. I’ve tested so many ways of being a photographer (strong to no presence on social media, blogging, vlogging, selling courses, etc.). I learned how to blog, grow organically, and boost a post to the top of Google (this is still one of my most popular posts of all time).
My main takeaway from continuing to pursue a creative career is that I absolutely love it. When I don’t put pressure on myself to do what the industry is doing, I feel free to explore new ideas and styles. I don’t have others telling me what’s best, but I do what feels the most authentic to me. It’s so rewarding to be my own boss and build the relationships I want with clients.
Now, I photograph what I want – lifestyle families, individuals, couples, and studio portraits. I have a style I feel confident in and look at photos I’ve taken and truly think, “I took that?!” I feel proud of my work and will continue to learn and grow as the years go on. I don’t ever plan to lose my passion for photography!
