I still remember it like it was yesterday. Every time I would go to the Base Store (the BX) in Stuttgart, Germany, I would always walk through the "fancy camera" aisle. LOL. I had always drooled over nice cameras even though I didn't have the first clue about how to use them.
I am not one of those photographers that has a story that starts out like many other photographers that say, "back when i was a little girl/boy, my grandfather gave me a nikon...." Nope, that is not me. I have always loved "taking pictures". I always managed being the one in my family taking all of the photos for parties with either my digital point and shoot or my disposable camera. Haha, yes, disposable. I am just like most moms that love taking 1,001 photos a day of their children. I thought, well I need a better camera to take better photos, LOL. In March 2009, my dear husband surprised me with a Nikon D60 kit. I was ever so excited. I hugged that box like it was a newborn baby. As I opened the box in excitement, all i could picture in my mind was how wonderful of photographs I was going to be taking of my kids. No, at that moment, not once, did it ever cross my mind I wanted to be a photographer. My dream was always to become a Psychiatrist. At 26, I only had a Bachelors in Psychology, and my love/hate for school was just not going to work to continue to med school. However, I wasn't upset about that. I was happy. I was happy with what I had and that I had an amazingly little family.... SOOO back to my camera. I opened up that baby and saw sooooo many buttons. WOW! I thought, I wonder what this A, S, P, M mean? Yes, i had no clue what any of those meant. I think the only thing I was familiar with in my camera was AUto, on and Off button.
One of my first shots with my Nikon D60 in auto. :) My handsome son JR.
I started just like any other excited camera owner to click away and take a million photos of my kiddos. Uploading them on to my computer would excite me even more as the photos were better than that of my older camera. However, they still didn't look like the photos I had in mind. I figured, well with an expensive professional camera, my photos should look professional. LOL.
Common rookie mistake, huh? I got on the internet, read reviews and all on what I thought was a professional camera only to find out it was an entry level camera with a kit lens. Okay I thought, so what can I do now to make my photographs better... I got on photography forums and got a hold of one of the best books you could ever read to teach you how to get out of manual. I bought Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Since I had no clue what any of this fancy photography lingo meant, this book was perfect for me. I would read a page maybe about three to four times, sometimes more, and try the exercise. Since I knew my kids would not stay still long enough for me to try different settings on them (also since i had to slowly move my settings with my manual next to me) I started out with me as the model. Yup, my toes were my very first models when I started learning. I had so many photos of my toes. See, what I would do was lay in my couch, put my feet up and read and have my camera , manual and Understanding Exposure book next to me. I did so many photos of my toes, some to get everything clear, others to get just my toes in focus. I started to learn slowly but surely.
Yes, I am aware my toes are not the prettiest models. LOL.
Yes, i am aware that it is totally blown out, but it was my first photo of myself with my camera.... I guess you can say a self portrait. :)
From then on I got hooked. I wanted to learn more. I bought more books, I read more photography forums. I took pictures of everyone and everything around me, literally.
I still hadn't realized I wanted to do this professionally. I was just intrigued by this thing called photography. Little did I know, Photography had always been there, waiting for me to make my grand entrance, even if it was photographing my toes. In 2010 I decided to do this as a career. Yes, I still had very little clue of what I was doing, but I knew that is what I wanted. I decided to give it my all and even if I had to fail at it over and over again, I decided I was not going to give up. I had the support of my husband who has always supported me on no matter what I have chosen, even if the ideas may seem crazy to many at the time. haha. Even more so I had the support of my very best friend in Germany, Alia, who was just as excited for me. I had never seen someone so excited for someone else's passion. She was so wonderful and would always be so supportive in everything. Throughout time I met a lot of amazing people who also shared my passion and pushed me to learn more, to be more. They are in great part the reason why I am who I am today. There were times I amazed myself and others where ummm... not so much. There were days I felt discouraged and felt like I could never learn all there is to learn. However, I found out, I am NEVER going to know it all. But that is okay. It is good to know, because I will always continue to want to learn more.
I was blessed to come across an amazing photographer who has had his work published and is very awesome at what he does. I found him on Model Mayhem. He extended and invite for me to meet up with local German photographers. I was thrilled. As I looked on to his work I saw he offered workshops . I was thrilled, only thing was... they were in German. I messaged him and asked if he would give me the workshop in english and that i would pay whatever it was. He gave me a deal to gather at least three to four more English speaking photographers interested. Now this would be a lighting workshop. He advised me I would have to know all of the basics and be well acquainted with my camera. The following weeks, not only did i study like a mad person to get to know my camera, but I looked for those four who will be willing to invest in their education. That workshop helped me find my style and find myself. Gero continues to be a personal mentor as well as a friend to me, which I am very thankful for.
Today, I continue to learn, I continue to attend online workshops, buy books, experiment like crazy. There are days I feel extremely inadequate next to some of my amazing photography colleagues. However, I come to the realization, this is who I am. Photography chose me, this is my calling. I will not give up. I will continue to strive.
Model: Me
Photo taken by an amazing friend/photographer of mine Jenn W.
So after reading that long book. :D I would like for you to tell me what dreams and goals you are fighting for, your struggles, and why it is worth it to you. Leave a comment below this blog post along with your name and an email. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. However, I love to read some of the inspiring things people go through. As a thank you for reaching over 2,000 fans I will be giving a free Boudoir/Glamour Photoshoot. This will include sitting fee and a fully edited CD with up to 15 images with a copyright release. If you would like a family sitting instead, you can also trade it in for one of those as well. :) Best of luck to all!!!
