I'm not one thing.
THE VISION
I Was Told to Pick One Thing
Niche down. Become the maternity photographer, or the wedding photographer, or the boudoir photographer. Pick a lane and own it.
I tried. It never took, and for a long time I thought that was a discipline problem.
It wasn't. That advice mistakes the category for the identity.
I Build the Picture First
Yellow suitcases on a cobalt floor. A red gown on a red set with red roses and red gloves. A payphone with a sonogram strip hanging off it. A bicycle in a red room. Curlers and blue fur in a laundromat at nine in the morning.
None of that was there when I walked in. I made all of it.
That's why the subject can change. The subject was never the thing I was working with.
The subject changes. The vision doesn't.
Nobody Walks In Ready
Almost the entire portrait industry markets to women who already feel good about themselves, or promises confidence once they've lost the weight first.
I don't think confidence is something you bring to a session. I think it's something that gets built during one.
So I don't expect you to arrive knowing how to pose, or to have fixed anything first. Guiding you through it isn't a bonus. It's the job.
Connection comes before perfection.
Where the Business Side Came From
I studied accounting and finance at the University of Kentucky and came out of a corporate background before any of this. That side never went away.
It's why I think about pricing, workflow, and client experience as carefully as I think about lighting. It's also why I can tell a business owner what her photographs need to do, not just what they should look like.
The Year I Couldn't Carry It
I broke my back.
I had built a business on being the one who handles it. The one who shoots, edits, invoices, answers, delivers, and gets up and does it again. Then I couldn't stand up.
I had to ask for help. I had to depend on people. I had to release control.
I used to think strength meant refusing all three.
It changed how I think about my time, what I say yes to, and how much I'm willing to carry by myself. It's also why the systems side of this business matters to me now in a way it never did before.