hobby....obsession.....career???

I have had a lifelong, inherited love of photography. My dad was always snapping pictures of me making me a model before I could even walk (I am quite obviously NOT a model). There were always stacks of photo albums on a shelf in an armoire in his bedroom. His love of photography must have transferred to me. I carried disposable cameras on me in the 90s (The heyday of disposable, before I even knew what a digital camera was). I thought it was the coolest thing ever when I bought a waterproof disposable camera when I was 15. My best friend Amanda and I took that camera to Wet and Wild one summer and discovered the magic of underwater pictures, and images of lifeguard's butts. I received my first real 35MM camera as a graduation present from my Aunt Janet. It was a small gold Vivitar camera with a retractable lens. Then came my first digital camera, an HP 3.2 megapixel camera. I took pictures of everything!

Photography was always a hobby until a friend asked me to photograph their wedding because they had a limited budget. I didn't listen to anyone's advice, which was to back out and insist they hire a "real" photographer. Instead I bought my first digital SLR and took their wedding photos. Much to my surprise, they loved the photos and I was RELIEVED. The photos weren't half bad. I was still in the dark on the actual mechanics of a camera. I didn't know what aperture was or ISO. Learning about photography grew into an obsession that kept me up at night browsing Google and sitting for hours on end in the photography section of Books-A-Million. I even dreamed about photography. I had a goal of growing my hobby into a business. That dream was put on hold for a while because I was moved into a extremely time-consuming position at my job. That was four years ago and here I am now, FINALLY turning my obsession with photography into a secondary career. I have absolutely NO desire to quit my day job (because I love it too. I'm a K9 police officer). But maybe I can capture some incredible moments in peoples lives and make people smile (Most people hate you when you're a cop, so it's nice to make people happy for a change).

So here begins my journey of turning a dream into a reality.....