And Here We Are
One day, after months of people telling me to get into portraits, I decided to give it a shot. I posted in our local neighborhood Facebook group I was offering two free sessions for practice and portfolio building. As it turns out people like free photos (who knew?) and I ended up doing eight mini sessions at a nearby park due to sheer amount of interest. After the first two sessions I was hooked, any apprehensions I had about not being able to work with people one on one went out the window when we just started talking and they told me about themselves.
Fast forward to late winter of this year and COVID-19 ravishing our country. Minnesota went into lockdown and all photography services were halted per state mandate. At the time my job went to work-from-home for a brief stint until the lockdown was lifted and essential services were allowed to return to work. This didn't sit well with my wife and I being we had a young baby at home, but we didn't have much of a choice. We found out we were expecting our second kid in February of 2021, which added in another level of discomfort with my working in the field I was in at the time and not knowing how COVID-19 affected pregnant women at the time. After some deliberation we decided that I would become a stay-at-home-dad and just photograph on the side on the weekends. After only a few months this has been one of the best decisions we have ever made.
Right around the time we decided I would be a stay-at-home-dad, an opportunity came up for a new start-up company expanding into Minnesota for portrait mini sessions. It looked like a great concept that actually benefited the photographer as well as clients as opposed to ones in the past that took advantage of photographers and their abilities. I applied and went through their rather arduous process and ultimately got accepted. I have greatly increased both my skillsets in dealing with a wide array of session types (seniors, engagements, families and more) but also picked up some invaluable pointers from other photographers and met some incredible people along the way.
While casually searching for new opportunities to shoot, a local photographer reached out saying a local high school girls soccer team needed a photographer for their season. Since I had a bunch of sports experience and wanted to shoot more "traditional" sports, I offered my services. We worked out the details of what they expected and I covered about half a dozen games for the team. This opportunity is proving to have opened a lot of doors for me simply thanks to delivering on what I promised, being friendly and flexible with their needs as they changed. I am currently waiting on another partnership to start as well thanks to one of the player's parents and her passion for having a plethora of photos of her daughter and her journey.
Over the last two months I have been working with an award-winning photographer based here in Minneapolis on a new program to help photographers grow their business. While I feel comfortable with a camera in my hands and have a wealth of business acumen, knowing where to start and which steps to take when it all falls on me had left me hesitant and confused. This program has helped me clarify what my goals are with photography and the type of people I would like to work with ideally.
Hopefully this mini series of posts has opened up the door into who I am as a photographer and a person. As I continue to expand on my blog I will offer insight into what makes sessions go well and what can derail them as well as offering pointers and tips for those that may not know what they're looking for or where to begin when looking for pictures to be taken. I hope to hear from you soon if you like what you hear, or even better join my mailing list to stay up to date on what I'm up to and be the first to hear about any promos or specials I may be running (I promise not to reach out more than once a week).
Thanks for reading about my story up to now!
All the best
Aaron