2014

2014

This year brought amazing accomplishments for my business.

I began photographing newborns in the beginning of the year in my home studio. I quickly learned that the art of newborn photography is something that doesn’t come easy but I also knew that it was important to me to capture this time in a family’s life. I wanted to preserve those beginning moments and all those little details of a brand new life. So I continued to practice and move forward in my studies of newborn photography. I am so proud of the progress I have made as a newborn photographer and I look forward to continuing to grow in the coming year!

2014 had also brought a wonderful opportunity for me to work with another local photography company. Ayres Photography (my own wonderful wedding photographers!!) approached me to be an associate photographer for their business. I shadowed them at weddings and really studied their style of photography so that I could best serve their clients. I booked numerous weddings through them and I’m happy to say that it was a wonderful experience for me. I learned so much and really grew as a photographer throughout this experience of working with them. I fell completely in love with photographing the magical moments that make up a wedding day and that’s why I have since decided to take on weddings for my own business. I’ll always genuniely appreciate the opportunity to learn and work with Jenn and Ben. They are really amazing at what they do and have taught me so much!

In April of 2014, the universe presented me with an opportunity of a lifetime. The perfect space on Main Street in East Aurora was available for rent. I took a HUGE leap of faith and followed my dream to open my very own photography studio. I had to really use my imagination in the beginning to be able to envision what I wanted to turn the space into. With a whole bunch of hard work, love and sweat equity I transformed an outdated, dingy space into my absolute dream studio. This was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and has proven to be such a positive move for my business. Check out the before and after!! Crazy, huh!!

I’m a firm believer in setting big goals and believing they are possible and in turn making them happen. I’m also a huge lover of adventure and traveling. So when I put those two things together (which I have done a whole bunch in 2014), I ended up created a year full of dreaming up adventures and then making them a reality.  I had decided early on in the year that I wanted to take a road trip with my husband and our son and that I would love to photograph people along the way. So I posted on Facebook and on my blog that we were going on a road trip and that we would decided where we were going based on the photo sessions I booked. This was such a fun experience for us. It worked out so perfectly and was truly a trip of a lifetime. I still think about the moments we shared together on the road almost daily. You can see one of the photo sessions I captured HERE and you can see some of the personal photos I captured along the way HERE. I look forward to making this a tradition in our family and hope to see and photograph many more friendly faces on the road in years to come!

I would like to thank each and every person who has supported me as I pursue my passion as a photographer and as I work towards turning my passion into a successful business. I have truly invested so much of my heart into each and every session that I have had and every single day I wake up truly excited about my life. I look back at the images that I have captured and I feel so grateful to have been able to preserve these moments in so many lives. This year I have have over doubled the amount of sessions from last year. It makes me so happy to look back throughout the sessions from 2014 and to feel so proud of the images I have created. There have been many memorable sessions this year and I’ll share a few that stand out to me, but know that each and everyone is special to me. After I opened my studio I decided to work on a photography project to capture something that is near to my heart. I photographed 18 nursing moms and their sweet nurslings. You can view a few of the beautiful images HERE.

Taking big risks and putting myself out there both as an artist and a business woman isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s scary! One thing that I did this year that was pretty scary for me was to begin teaching Photo 101 courses to moms. The part that made me so nervous was public speaking but at the end of each class I was overcome with excitement that I had completed something that was challenging for me, and I did it really well. It’s so awesome to be able to help other moms learn how to use their cameras to better capture their kiddos! I used to be a mom with a camera trying to photograph my baby and I did struggled with not understanding how to use my camera and not being happy with the photos I was capturing. So it’s just really excited to be able to help others. I’m looking forward to teaching much more in the future.

Another moment that really stands out to me from the past year was meeting and photographing Heather Wascak. Heather is a local mom who was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant. You might remember the extremely moving images that I captured of her nursing her newborn for one of the last times before she began chemotherapy. I then captured Heather, her family and friends as they shaved off their hair in support for her as her chemo treatments would make her loose her hair. Meeting Heather and being able to capture a small, yet powerful part of her journey has really impacted my life. As an artist and a photographer it is easy to capture the happy moments in peoples lives. But it’s the painful, raw, sad times where many people would stop shooting, but I didn’t. I continue to capture the real emotions that Heather was going through and even though the images might reflect pain, I believe they are very important. I’m thankful that I was brave enough to capture them and I’m thankful that Heather was brave enough to invite me, a stranger into her home during such a difficult time in her life. I’m all about photographing true emotions and I really do feel honored to be able to capture people’s history.

Another highlight of my year happened just a few weeks ago. I photographed a surprise marriage proposal in a beautiful tree farm right before Christmas. I’m smiling as I type this because it was just so perfect, a photographers dream shoot! You can view some of my favorite images from Pat & Jackie’s session HERE. To end my year I photographed a wedding for my own business and it went so wonderfully.  I’m so thankful to be able to finally share my wedding photography. I have many weddings already booked for 2015 and I can’t wait for them! I’m so excited! I will only be accepting a limited number of weddings for each year so that I can ensure my wedding clients high quality work and prompt service. So if you are recently engaged and looking to hire a wedding photographer please contact me and we can set up a time to chat about your wedding and see if we are a good fit!

I could go on and on about how awesome 2014 has been, but I’ll let the photos do the talking! Thanks again everybody!! Here’s to 2015!! xo