How did you get into photography? Why do you love you photography? These are probably the biggest questions I get and I am more than happy to share my story with you. So how about we do a little blog post about it. Woohoo!!!
Back in 2008 I was given the Canon d30. This camera was one of the first “home grown” dslr camera from Canon. Right away I was smitten (I didn’t know otherwise). I was taking this camera to farmer markets, photographing my cat, I was even practicing my depth of field on rocks. Yes rocks! I was photographing everything. I’m sure people where super annoyed with me and now I have all these random images on my hard drives. Yah?
That winter I booked my first family session for $75. Oh man, I was SO freaked, intimidated, feeling not good enough. You know all those feelings. I remember talking with my brother before I went into my shoot and he said, “You have to start somewhere. Remember this day in 2-3 years.” I went into the family session that lasted 15 mins. *Gasp* haha. As a matter of fact, I still have the images. Just for funsies, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and take a look at my first photo session. Oh, look at that, I can’t seem to find it. Oh darn!? Sorry about that (???)
Anyways…moving right along. After that photo session, that was a little rocky, I knew that I wanted more of this photography world. I was searching the internet finding the best way to learn. I was certain that I would be attending Art School for photography for $xx,xxx. I was quickly talked out of that, quickly! Then the idea popped in my head to shadow a photographer. I went on craigslist (because thats where you look when you need to further your education) and came across a wedding photographer in need of a assistant. Doing wedding photography was probably the furthest thought in my mind to photograph. I honestly didn’t know where this art was going to take me. But I knew I loved it. I ended up contacting this gal, chatting and we hit it off right away. To speed up this story I shot with her until the wedding season of 2010. In that time I even upgraded to the Canon 40D. Then of course like every other photographer I was stalking photographers blogs. I contacted Miss Laura Ivanova as I really wanted to expanded my knowledge of wedding photography and wanted to pick her brain, period. I remember before I met with Laura she asked me to bring some of my work with. At this point, I never printed images from a professional lab nor did I have work that I felt was good enough to show. I had a mini panic attack. hahah. (I’m sure Laura is laughing if she’s reading this hahaha). I also had very little time to get any type of professional prints. I did the unthinkable and took my images to Target. *gasp*. Trust me, I was MORE than embarrassed. I remember my parents saying, “If she’s a true artist she will see your potential and not that you printed your images from Target.” haha. It was a wonderful meeting that lead to becoming her second photographer for the 2010 wedding season. That turned into being an Associate Photographer in 2011 as well as second shooting her weddings. 2012-2013 I was strictly Associate shooting as well as booking my own weddings. It was beyond my wildest dreams of a learning experience. I traveled to some amazing destination weddings from St. Louis, MO to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. With all those experiences, it truly has formed the direction, the person and the business I am and have become. And I am beyond thrilled, excited, blessed to be photographing love and beautiful weddings.
If you have further questions about photography feel free to email me info@whitneyandersonphoto.com. I love to talk shop! Enjoy the journey my friend – it is so sweet!
