Humble Beginnings / A personal post about how I started as a photographer

Photography by Gary and Diane Hoeffle

Here’s a fun throwback Thursday to MY senior pictures! This started out as an Instagram caption…and when it got too long to fit I realized it should probably be a blog post instead!

At this point in my life I was already in love with photography. I was taking a photography class in high school and learning about exposure, composition and developing film. Totally just dated myself because, yes, film was still the main type of photography out there!

When it came time to get my senior pictures taken I knew exactly who I had to have. My friend Alison had hers taken a few years before me and I was obsessed with her photographer's work. I had never seen work like this before. They weren't taken in a studio, they were taken OUTSIDE. Can you believe it?! A professional photographer who worked outdoors and not just for nature photos?!

Seriously...this was a brand new idea at the time. And I knew I wanted to be this kind of photographer too. So my mom, bless her heart, drove me 2 and a half hours to Cedar Falls, Iowa to the Hoeffle’s house because she knew how important it was to me. I mean, I talked about this photographer doing my senior pictures since I was a Freshman, so I’m not sure she had much of a choice at that point!

When we arrived they graciously invited us into their home and we talked about my vision for the session. Really though, I left it completely in his hands because I trusted his talents completely. We hopped in the van and drove around looking for inspiration, which was such a fun experience. After that little adventure we came back and did one set in their basement studio. And all through the session, I asked this very patient man and his lovely wife a million questions about their business. I paid close attention to everything they did, their ideas, processing (yeah...I even had them show me their computers for editing), gear, products they sold, lighting, all of it. Thankfully they were amazing people and excitedly let me in on so many details of their work. Since then they have retired, but I still think of them and am so grateful to their kindness.

After a few years of learning and working on a portfolio, I bought my first digital camera and did my first photo shoot, which was a senior. Getting paid for taking pictures was so surreal. I put everything I had into that session (which was not a lot at the time). I had one camera and one lens and a whole lot of heart. I made business cards (with the first business name I thought of - Lightbrush Photography) and bought a little album to slip the printed photos into for proofing. Things have changed so much since then, my gear is sooo much better, my brand is more professional, online galleries are an amazing thing, my business name even changed, but the one thing that hasn't is that I put my whole heart and soul into every job. I always remember that surreal feeling of my first paid gig and have not stopped feeling grateful for the ability to make people feel amazing through my talents, just like the Hoeffle’s.