Once upon a time, I was a new and budding photographer with big hopes! When I graduated from college with my BFA in photography and design, I had hardly any money and only basic camera equipment. But I decided if I was going to have a home business – I needed to start now and try to make it work. Seven years later – here I am with over 376 sessions under my belt, 2 high school contracts, several speaking engagement, and a full fledged business. It often feels crazy to me that my hope of being able to work from home (so I could stay home with our future kids) is actually a reality.

My skills have definitely improved over the years both in shooting and editing, and so has my equipment. When I started I was shooting on a very simple, inexpensive DSLR using only natural light. Now, I’m working with a professional grade camera that many of my peers in the industry also use, as well as utilizing a variety of lenses and off camera lighting. But I think it’s important from time to time to look back at where we came from – so we can see the progress forward, and so we can be reminded that there is always room to grow. So today I’m going to really humble myself and share pictures from when I first started and in the past year. (None of these have been edited or altered in any way – these are the images that were shown to my clients at the time of their session.)

I’m going to start with these two portraits of high school seniors. Both were taken with a pond behind the gorgeous girls. The image on the left is of the second high school senior girl I ever photographed. She’s a gorgeous young lady (still is) and I’m still really happy with this image. I like all the blues around her with the water and her jeans. The image on the right is from one of last year’s senior lady’s. You’ll notice this one is a little brighter and has a lot more color and warmth to it. Honestly the biggest difference between these two is my editing style. I changed a lot in the way I edited between then and now.

The next set of images is of the FIRST high school senior I ever photographed and one of my senior guys from last year. I wanted to pick two that were a similar subject matter so both boys are on golf courses with their golf bags. The top image was taken at Hickory Point Golf Course. It was an overcast day which gave us nice soft light but it also lent itself to the more blue tone in this image. The bottom image was taken at Scovill Golf Course. It was a really bright sunny day so we got some fun back lighting and for this image I used off camera lighting to get that really dramatic look that makes him almost jump off the page.

Newborn family portraits are a bit different from standard family portraits. There’s a bit of an art to getting everyone close together to create that really sweet, happy new family portrait we all want. The top image is from several years ago, photographed in our former Decatur studio on one of those traditional muslin backdrops. I’m still really happy with this image, I love the closeness and those smiles! I just would edit it a little differently than I originally did. Now the bottom image is from this past year. These days I do almost all my newborn portraits in my clients homes. It makes it really convenient for them because everything they might need is there. This image was taken in front of a blank wall in their home, facing a large sliding glass door and I threw in some off camera lighting for a little extra pop.

Newborns themselves I’ve always been fairly decent at. They’re so tiny you can move them to wherever the good light is – so it makes my job pretty easy. The top image is of my cousin’s daughter from several years ago. It was the middle of summer so it was nice and warm outside – we set this up in their garage so I could have nice even soft light for this image. The bottom image is from this past year. Again set up in my clients home, facing the large sliding glass door. But the added light from my off camera lighting really gave it an extra pop and some more color!

Lastly, two similar family portraits. The top image was taken several years ago at Fairview Park in Decatur. It was a bright fall day… not the ideal time of day for a shoot, but we made it work. We got a bunch of great images at this session but I wanted to try and choose to that looked similar. Some things I don’t like about this image – the blown out background and the bright spot on Tim’s (the man on the left) hand. Because the background is so bright that the subjects seem dark and I’m not a fan of that. Now let’s look at the family portrait from last year on the bottom. You’ll notice it’s a similar pose and similar lighting…. BUT I added that off camera light, which meant I was able to compensate for the background and make sure the family stayed the brightest thing in the image.

I think it’s safe to say there have been some definite improvements in the quality of my portraits since the time I started. We all start somewhere and I’m so so grateful for those people who gave me an opportunity to grow and improve as an artist and business owner. I think this helps to show why a photographer’s prices might change and increase over time. Their skills grow, they require more expensive gear, they start thinking like a business instead of a hobbyist – and an increase in price is necessary for them to be profitable. It’s taken me several years but my prices finally reflect the quality of work I produce and what I need to make in order to make a living.

I also want you to know that I realized early on that if I wanted to do this – I needed to be able to ensure for my clients that the artwork I produce for them would be of the best quality I could create. I needed to know that regardless of the lighting situation I walked into – I could make it work. I needed to be confident in myself and my abilities so my clients could be confident in me. And those are things I continue to strive for today excellence and professionalism and high quality portrait art!

I hope you guys all have a fantastic day! I’ll see you back here on Wednesday!