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I’m often asked the question: how did you get into photography? In this post, I will delve into my background and where I discovered my passion!

My photography journey started in 2004, but I didn’t really know it at the time. My mom had just upgraded from her film camera to a digital camera and passed along the old film camera to me. As I was only 8, I am sure you can imagine the nonsense I was taking pictures of. But I also took photos of the people I cared about and it is fun to see those and look back on them!

When I was 12, I got a small digital point and shoot camera. With this camera, I took cringy 12-year-old type photos, but still also had some especially nice ones mixed in as well as purposeful photos of my friends and family.

This photo with my new digital camera was taken of me with my old film camera at my grandparents house.

This was one of the first pictures I took with that new digital camera shown above. I took this picture of one of my sisters on a trip to find a Christmas tree with my family in the mountains in 2008.

When I turned 14 in 2010, I got a nicer digital camera. I still took the point and shoot everywhere, but I started using this nicer camera for even more intentional shots.

Towards the end of that period, I began taking pictures of my family – mostly my youngest sister. Though my editing left much to be desired frequently.

When I was almost 17, I bought myself a used DSLR camera and began charging friends and family for mini photo shoots before starting up my business officially 6 months later in April of 2014.

I started practicing on my siblings in all of the seasons so I could get better at portraits.

I also started dabbling in sports/action type photography.

This all lead to my first paid photo shoot!

From there, I just continued to develop my skills and spent a lot of my time with a camera in my hands. I even started a youth summer photography camp!