This is how I started a career in wedding and portrait photography
There comes a time in ones life when you realize that perhaps you are here to do something more that what you are doing everyday. I did not just wake up and say hey I am going to be a photographer but one day I did wake up.
I should have listened to that little voice in my head many years ago and started working on a career that I would love, such as photography. I, like the droves of people that I eventually listened to believed that I had to be great at taking photos in order to make a living at photography. I really have to stress the fact that self doubt has held back countless numbers of potentially great people from achieving their dreams.
I took the long hard path earning my own respect along the way, starting out taking photos of landscapes around where I lived using a thing called film and Instamatic cameras. I would occasionally take photos of friends who seemed to like my style even though I did not have a style in my mind I just liked to see the images appear when you shook the Polaroid or I loved the way the flash cube burned after the whitest flash that I had ever seen popped. I should have known that developing the negatives in a little barrel and watching the prints come to life before my eyes in the trays of acidic smelling developing agents in my tiny six by eight foot bathroom while my mom and brother knocking and wondering what could be taking so long in there. I wasted most of my life dabbling instead of taking my art seriously.
Friends would suggest that I take wedding photos so I did but working a full and part time job to pay my way took up most of my time and I wanted to have my weekends to pursue the natural side of life visiting the best of what New York has to offer Adirondacks, Catskills,Great Lakes, Finger Lakes, Long Island and countless numbers of state parks and wilderness areas. Good luck, with stopping your exploring after you have seen so much of what New York has to offer.
So we also started traveling up and down the East coast and also across this great nation of ours still trying to find the right place. The place we were looking for was actually right where we were, home.
Then in 2014 friends of ours wanted us to photograph their wedding on the beach of Lake Ontario which is only thirty minutes from home, a win -win situation as I was once again enjoying taking photos of a beautiful bride, her handsome groom and their guests and they were able to document their special day with memorable photographs.
Then it hit me, what if I used my outdoor adventurous spirit and combined that with photographing people in their environments which appealed to me more than the old days when I would be in a house of worship with no flash and then to a dark reception hall for the remainder of the time. I did and still do indoor weddings but my preference is to be out in nature where the surroundings really get my creativity and passion flowing.
By 2016 I started my business "Merle E. Photography and Fine Arts" and I am finding that there is a lot of work that goes into starting up a business. I am going to make it work, I have to make it work. It goes by day to day wither or not we will be able to make the bills and I have had to do handyman work to keep that dream alive but after eleven months I believe we will are still heading in the right direction. Now to go work on today's marketing plan, I will keep you posted on how that works out.
