5th Year in Business & My Story

This year will be my 5th year doing photography. If you are an immediate family member or my best friend, you have seen me at my best and at my worst. You know that there have been times when I thought I would be famous and times I was ready to sell all my gear and quit for good. 🤣 BUT, here I am, posting my very first self-portrait. This photo was taken by my eager 7-year-old, using my back-up camera. I am secretly crossing my fingers and hoping he enjoys the art of photography as much as I do someday.

I took photos here and there but I can’t say that I had a burning passion for photography as a kid. I wish I could say that. It would sound so much cooler. 6 years ago I started attending a local church, which many of you know as Better Life Church. I’m a super loud person and I love to talk so I jumped onto their greeting team because that’s what I assumed I’d be the best at.

A year later God asked me to do something crazy. One day I felt a burning desire to pick up a camera and join the Creative Team at church. I had never had any real interest in photography and to be honest, even though I was a people person, I was terrified. I was waaaay older than all the people on that particular serving team and they were all much cooler than me. See where this is going, lol? A few days later our pastor was doing something new. He did a LIVE on Facebook. He said “If you could do anything right now, what would it be?” I commented underneath that I would join the creative team at church. He spoke directly to me and basically told me to get my butt in gear and do it!

The next Sunday I did it. I found myself surrounded by a group of really young people that dressed way cooler than me. BUT… they were so eager to share their knowledge. They helped me get started. They helped me learn the basics. They helped me grow. They looked over my mistakes, and I made many. They were patient with me as I spent hundreds of hours having to watch YouTube videos to learn photography. They let me borrow a camera until I could afford my own. Let me tell you, I searched my entire house for things we didn’t need, in order to raise the money to buy my first starter camera. I scrounged and scraped for pennies to buy that first camera and I am not a bit ashamed to say it.

I have came a long way since the beginning. So many people have helped me to get to where I am now. It all started with God giving me a dream that I didn’t even know I wanted. Then He placed people in my life like my church family, my best friend, and my actual family to help me live that dream out.

Photography has brought me joy. It has paid bills. It has connected me to new people. It has truly been a blessing and every day I am grateful for it!