My Journey to Photography | Cleveland Family Photographer and Filmmaker

As some of you may know, I have not always been a photographer. I am a Registered Dietitian and have a master’s degree in public health. I worked as a dietitian for ten years but since nutrition work is not creative, I have always had a creative outlet at home. 

I have a closet filled with art supplies that I have collected over the years. I love to paint and draw but I always struggled with the subject matter. What did I want to paint? I decided many years ago that my ideal situation would be to have a nice camera, to take nice pictures and to base other artwork off of those images. The only problem: I could not afford a nice camera. 

At the same time, my Dad was getting into photography. He had an entry level DSLR camera (a nice camera) and decided that as he was getting more and more into photography, he wanted an upgrade. And you can probably all guess what that meant for me: A CAMERA (thank you Dad!). I love a good hand-me-down. 

So I finally had a camera after years of searching for an affordable one on ebay. Now, by this time, my first son was already born and my story from here is very typical of many photographers. I took photos of my son and of my family and LOVED it. I loved that I could capture memories with him and was pleasantly surprised at how nice they looked. And slowly, I let myself believe that I might actually be good at photography, got a camera upgrade myself, and I found that helping families preserve their memories in photos and films is what I want to be doing. I had known for a long time that I wanted a camera, but I did not know that a camera would lead me to where I am today and I feel very lucky.