Starting as a graphic design student at a community college in New Jersey, I very quickly found that stock photography can get very expensive. ‘Well,’ I thought,’ it can’t be THAT hard to take some pictures and use them for projects’. I invested in a digital camera and soon found my passion for photography. Animals were the easiest (and also the most beautiful) models and since I was a very active equestrian at the time, I took advantage of the beautiful and magnificent creatures at the barn.
Just sitting in the pasture for hours was not even that terrible. Out came some nice and some not so nice shots, but you don’t learn unless you do. So I kept on going and after about two years, I invested, after a lot of convincing from my now husband, in my first DSLR camera. Now, I had to figure out shutter speed, ISO, aperture, different lenses, and whatnot. It was a little overwhelming at first but, as often, the internet makes everything easy. I googled, read blogs, found tutorials, watched videos, etc. Through my old job, I was able to go to Scott Kelby’s Photoshop World workshop (thanks to one of my best friends @bigjoeski) and it just catapulted my passion for photography to new heights. If you ever get a chance to go to one of those workshops, DO IT!!!!
Always wanting to get better at photographing people, I would bring my camera to random events, birthdays, and farms. I slowly became more and more comfortable taking pictures of people. Pinterest was great for inspiration and I was also able to find some advice on how to tell people what to do and how to awkwardly hold their head in front of the camera in order to show their best side (in German, we say it’s our chocolate side ;) ).
Today, I love taking head shots of people. If I could just do that all day, that would be great. Hopefully, I’ll get there one day. Until then, let’s just keep on blogging. :)
