My story | Bordentown, NJ
My first blog post here. Wow. I feel a little nervous. What does one showcase in her first ever post on her first ever photography business website? Well, I figure if I'm trying to motivate you to trust me to tell your story through my images, maybe I'd let you in on some of my story through my images.
Some background. I live with my husband, our two girls and our three cats. There's always a mess happening somewhere. When the weather is nice I try to encourage the messes outdoors, but, even then, there's lots of art mess, cooking mess, sick-day mess, water mess, and general kid mess. I'm learning to embrace the messes. For the most part, there's a lot of laughter and love that go into making them.
Pre-kids and messes I studied biology and earned a Masters degree in Zoology with a focus on Evolutionary Biology and Behavioral Ecology. But I've always been drawn to photography. I took a community education photography course after I graduated college and learned to shoot in manual on my 35mm camera. While in grad school, I tinkered in the department dark room, developing black and white photos of my cats and future husband. Post-Masters I entered the world of education and taught high school biology. Though I truly loved teaching, I left when my first child was born.
It wasn't until I was eight months pregnant that I bought a digital camera and the obsession began. I must have averaged a hundred photos a day for the first year of that child's life. Because you don't want to forget. Any of it. And babies are so darn cute. And toddlers are so darn cute. And everything they do and discover is so darn cute.
A couple of years later child number two was born. Who has time to take pictures, while holding a newborn and chasing a toddler?! Plus, fantastically convenient cell phones with decent camera abilities were available. So my poor neglected DSLR got put on the shelf for a while.
Then something amazing happened. A most fabulous woman asked if I would be interested in photographing her family reunion and her parents' vow renewal. WHAT?! You trust me to document this incredibly precious event for your family? She did. So I did. And I fell in love. I fell in love with capturing moments and telling stories through a medium I have always adored.
After that experience I jumped into photography head first. I started shooting every day, joining forums, taking workshops, learning everything I could about the art and the business and, most importantly, I think, practicing like a mad woman. I take my camera to the grocery store, the library, and my daughters' schools. I take it to dinners with friends. I pull the car over and let my kids run around so I can shoot the brilliant blue sky or a gorgeous sunset. Sometimes people stare. I don't care. I can't stop. It's a part of me now.
