Love Stories

I have had the honor of photographing and telling hundreds of love stories as a wedding photographer in Chattanooga.  Please take a look around for ideas and inspiration for telling yours.

Finding My Calling & My Road to Photography

chattanooga photographer

I have always been a bit of philosopher and dreamer and have also had a creative side to me.  I have also always loved math and science and logic.  My brain is pretty equal-sided.  Which is a big reason why I love photography.  To be a great photographer you need to have skills from both sides of the brain.  The creative side for composition and lighting and the analytical side for the technical aspects of lighting and the camera itself.

Growing up the only thing I ever wanted to do was be a business owner. I LOVE kids, so I thought I might own a daycare or something.  The idea of being my own boss and in charge of my destiny was appealing.  I thought my creative side would be fulfilled with my hobbies, like painting, crafting and all of those things I loved to do. Then, I did a space project in science class and fell in love with my first passion.

Science was my first passion

I loved science, especially chemistry and biology.   Every time I was asked to a do a school project or paper on something in school I did it on something related to science.  It was the solar system or female astronauts or geology ( I had a pretty cool rock collection) or “the cell”.  Do I sound all over the place?  Well, that’s because I have come to learn as an adult I am a multi-passionate person.  I have a lot of love to give and I love a lot of things.

So why didn’t I start a business at 18 or 19? Even a science based business? Because I had very practical parents and lots of practical influences who told me I need to pick a real job.  A job that paid well and that would always be in demand.  I also was afraid.  Business is a risky thing and I didn’t believe in myself.  I was afraid to take the leap into entrepreneurship.  So I went to college at Dalton State College, lived at home, and got a job at Kroger pharmacy.  After that I attended pharmacy school at Mercer University in Atlanta where I graduated with my PharmD.

Pharmacy was my first career

After college I started working at a local retail pharmacy and then landed a job at a local hospital. At first I really loved my job in health care but after a few years I found myself really frustrated.  I was not happy with the health care system and I could feel my creative soul being stifled and silenced.  I love helping my patients, but the rest of it felt like noise and not very significant.  There had to be more out there.  Then I remembered how much I liked that canon rebel camera I had in school and decided to pick up photography as a way to help me fulfill that creative need I had inside me.

I started taking photos of whatever I could find and found that I loved having subjects that interacted with me. Sooner, rather than later, friends and family started asking me to take portraits.  My passion grew and grew and all of a sudden I found myself consuming photography information like a contestant eating hot dogs in a contest.  I just couldn’t get enough of it.  Then I realized I could make extra money and decided to make this project a business.  At that point I started consuming how to be a business owner and I remembered this is what I always wanted to do.

Finally, I found the courage to start my own business and own my journey in life.

I want to be creative and own my own business.  I want to work with people because I love people and I feed off the energy of other people.  Then I found a way to quench my fascination and love for romance while being creative and interacting with people! Enter wedding photography!

I can be a little existential at times. What is my purpose?  Why am I here?  What am I meant to be?  What am I really good at and what do I love?  These are questions that haunt me all the time.  Some people can float through life without a lot of depth, I envy these people.  I imagine their rates of depression are significantly lower.  However, since I started this photography journey I finally feel like I have answers to these questions.  I am really good at making people feel comfortable around me.  I am really good having a vision and executing it.

I’ve finally found what I’m really good at.

I’m not a great a 1,000 things (like cooking, cleaning, being cool in any kind of standard way, being still, any task that is really meticulous and time consuming, athletics, making healthy diet choices, being disciplined about a routine, the list goes on) but after 30 years I’m finally starting to figure out what I am good at.

So if you have hired me or want to hire me or are thinking about hiring me I say to you Thank You! Thank you for the opportunity to share my story and to do what I love.  It is no small thing to support someone following their dreams and purpose.  It puts out a lot of joy and positive karma into the world.  Also, Thank you for reading this insanely long blog post.  If you made it to the end you deserve an award, so go! Go treat yourself with something! (or Treat Yo Self for my Parks&Rec fans!)

comments +

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Love Stories

Getting to shoot these high school sweethearts engagement pictures already had this photographer stocked for their wedding day.  

a few favorite

Howe Farms

Highlands Chapel

Caty & Simon got married at her grandmother's private estate inside the Sandestin resort in Florida.  They fell in love chatting by the water so it only made since they say their vows here too.

Florida

Sandestin Resort

It's not every wedding that starts with a luxury car in a venue styled like a tuscan villa and ends with karaoke and fireworks!  This wedding was EPIC!

Howe Farms

The Woodlands