My Photography Journey

My journey with photography started when I was around 14 years old.  My parents owned a little Sony point-and-shoot camera that I decided to pick up one day.  I discovered the “macro” setting and immediately became obsessed with the depth of field the pictures had (although at the time I likely had no idea what “depth of field” even meant). I started taking pictures of flowers, nature and my pets.  Anytime I saw something beautiful, I would challenge myself to capture it in a unique way.  Looking back on these images, it’s clear that I was a beginner photographer, but it’s also clear that I had an eye for what I was doing.

Pictures of animals and nature quickly turned into pictures of people.  From the start I absolutely loved candids.  I loved capturing day to day life and little moments.  I was never a huge fan of forced, cheesy smiles.  The first picture below of the man and boy playing checkers (my Pappy and cousin) is still one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken.

My love for photographing people continued to grow more and more.  My close friends and family were constantly in front of my camera, and soon enough I was known as “the photographer”.  I begged for new camera equipment every Christmas.  Here a quick list of the cameras I’ve owned from when I first started until now: Sony point-and-shoot, Canon Powershot, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon Mark II, Canon 6D, Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 5D Mark IV.

All through high school I knew I wanted to pursue photography and for a hot minute I was dead set on not even going to college.  However, as graduation crept closer and closer it became clear that I needed more education before I dove into this career. I decided to pursue a Photography degree along with Business Admin & Entrepreneurism minors at Shawnee State University in southern Ohio (a quick disclaimer - I don’t believe you have to pursue a photography degree to be a successful photographer, BUT I do believe education is crucial for any field even if its not through a university).

Here’s a handful of pictures from my time at SSU!:

I always told myself I would NEVER be a wedding photographer.  I knew I wanted to be a photographer but I didn’t want to photograph weddings.  That was too much pressure and it sounded too stressful.  However, my freshman year of college (2014) a sweet couple from my church asked if I would photograph their wedding day.  I was beyond nervous, but I did it anyway.  After that, I still wasn’t keen on the idea of photographing weddings, but I somehow ended up in a spiral of booking one wedding after another and I just couldn’t say no.  I was finally finding a place in the photography world that felt like home.  Throughout my time in college I was a part-time wedding photographer, photographing around 25 weddings within those four years.  I truly can’t thank all of the couples who trusted me to photograph the biggest day of their life.  They’re trust in me is what kickstarted my current career and passion.

Here’s a few of some of the first weddings I photographed (2014-2018):

Since 2018 I’ve been a FULL TIME wedding & elopement photographer!  It still sort of blows my mind that I have my dream job at such a young age.  Often I’ve been asked by young, aspiring photographers how I got to where I am.  I could probably ramble on about social media, marketing, networking, client experience and more…but the truth is I wouldn’t have pushed myself in any of those areas if I wasn’t just flat out determined.  This is what I wanted, so I went after it.  I’m a firm believer that hard work beats talent any day.

Although I love seeing how I’ve grown over the years, I’m still so proud of the pictures I took when I first started.  I really pushed myself to notice things that others didn’t and to capture them in way’s that were unique.  Thank you so much to everyone who’s ever let me capture their beautiful faces, their meaningful stories and their timeless love.

To wrap it up, here’s a handful of some recent favorite moments I’ve captured.

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

–Aaron Siskind