How I knew I wanted to be a Photographer

I have been a professional photographer for about four almost five years. In the industry, I’m still considered a newbie. Most photographers I look up to have been doing this for over 20 years. Before I decided to formally start my business around five years ago, I had no idea that I will be pursuing this as a career, let alone quit my full-time job with benefits and amazing pay to start my own photography business. So I wanted to share with you all how I came about this journey. I believe that to be able to establish trust with my clients and the people who will potentially look up to me, I have to be transparent in my struggles and in my days of sunshine.

Who am I now

I guess before I share with you how I got here. I should tell you a little bit of who I am today. First, I am a mother of one little girl who is my whole entire heart. I’m also a wife and the oldest and only daughter of four. I am in my late 20s and decided to quit my amazing full-time job as a behavioral therapist to pursue a photography career full-time. I’m the first of my family to do many things. First to go to college, start a business, buy a home, travel outside of the country, ect. With that comes strength specially coming from an immigrant family. I’m a first generation daughter and in my Mexican culture that comes with a lot of pressure and responsibilities. I am a dreamer not a realist. I always envision everything in full color and always see the glass half full. I’m a hard worker and I am definitely work obsessed but always put my family first. I’m a believer in seeing the good in people. I could be a super empathetic person, I have a super soft heart for injustices and always speak up for anyone who doesn’t have a voice. I base a lot of my decisions on gut feelings and energy. Moodiness is my overall vibe, being genuine and real is what I gravitate towards. That’s why I believe that my photography style is much of that.

How I got here

I never actually saw myself being a photographer. I didn’t envision myself pursuing this as a career and being able to rely on this to provide for my family. Growing up since a very small age I always knew I was a creative person. When I would watch films, shows, or look at a photograph or an artwork, I never really just looked at it, I always asked so many questions. I want to know why it was created the way it was and I admire certain things about a film, the actors, the dialogue, and the lighting. I was always so intrigued by all of this. I remember being in elementary school and asking my mom to take me to auditions that I would hear about. Of course, my mom was always super busy and never had the time to take me to any but it was always such a dream of mine. When I finally entered into middle school, the school gave you as a student the option to decide on your electives based on your program. You get to select your program based on a potential career choice of yours. And being the underdog, or in better words, the only one of my friend group and in general from most people that I knew. I selected the art program where everyone else either selected business or medical field. So I knew that the art program had the least funds in comparison to all the other programs but I didn’t care. I just knew I really want to learn more about that world. I remember clearly walking into a computer lab on career day and having to take a personality test that will end up giving you a result of your potential career choice based on your personality. Basically, I was not shocked with the results I got. The results were an actor or a singer. I never really showed interest into performing as much but I always did show interest on how it was all engineered behind the scenes. By the time I got into high school I did the same thing. I entered into the art program. I was given all art electives. I took drawing classes. I took painting class and took sculpture class along with theater class. That’s where I learned that theater was some thing I really loved. Spoiler alert, I didn’t do well in any of the other art forms but in theater I shined. I definitely had a acting passion. I auditioned for my first play & theater performance in high school and I did not do very well. I completely froze and forgot all of my lines and almost ran out of there in tears. After that I thought to myself, “I don’t think this is for me.” So I started to research more into a field. That’s when I discovered directing. I had the huge “ah” moment. I wanted to be a film director. So for college that’s exactly what I did. I pursued film production as my major. I still continued with my acting classes because I had a theory that to be a good director had to learn how to do every area in production from acting, to lighting, to camera operating, you name it. So that’s what I started to do, take all of the classes I needed to take. Then one day I took a photography class.

Intro to photography

That one photography class I took, I didn’t learn any techniques that would help me learn to be a photographer. Rather it was a class where they focused on the history of photography. I absolutely fell in love with the history of photography. I learned that it was such a beautiful art form, that I decided to buy a new camera. I had no plans on what I wanted to do with a camera. I just knew I wanted one. Slowly, I started to just photograph landscapes. I learned how to edit and next thing you know I was offering family members photography portraits for free. I didn’t have a plan of where I wanted this to go. I just knew that I wanted to learn more about the subject and to have fun. I had to keep on teaching myself all of the photography techniques I needed to know. It took me about another four years from buying my first camera, to me deciding to go with this full-time. I didn’t completely forget about film production. I still participated in short films where I was an assistant. I actually did a few of them and it’s still my first love. Photography has just been what I know I can do very well and am passionate for. Because of my previous film experience I actually decided to incorporate short film services to my business.

I remember always hearing people say that I had no idea where I was going to take this career path and that actually happened to be true for me. Even though I had this whole other career path I was once pursuing and I once imagine myself doing, photography stumbled upon my path and gave me everything I needed and more. I now do exactly what I’ve always dreamed of. I create art and it lives on forever and it’s something that is so meaningful for the families that I capture, and that for me is what makes it incredibly rewarding.