P for professional

Two years ago, I moved just outside of Boston to attend photography school. I spent my entire senior year of undergrad ITCHING to go. Having just come back from spending the year in Paris and spending most of my free time taking pictures, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I didn't really care about French literature (my apologies to any professors reading this - while it's a fascinating subject, it's certainly not something I wanted to build a career out of!), and I wanted to be a photographer.

Senior year was painful for me, academically speaking. I did very well in all of my classes, but my heart wasn't in it. I was doing the work just for the sake of doing it, so I could graduate and get the heck out of dodge. Not that college wasn't amazing - I now know that I will NEVER have as much free time as I did then, and life will probably never be quite as carefree. Being the planner that I am, I spent an inordinate amount of time figuring out what school I wanted to go to for photography, where I would live, and how I would support myself while I was in school.

Once I picked a school, everything else fell into place pretty quickly. I moved to Boston and threw myself into the photograpy program. I LOVED it. A year and a half seemed like sooooo long, but you know what? It's not. It flew by. After a whirlwind of studio classes, learning classic wedding posing, and going out and photograping every knitter I could get my hands on in a 20-mile radius -- yes, that was a real project. No, you won't find the images on this blog. That was back before I knew what I was doing -- the dust settled and we were....done.

I graduated!

Holy crap.

I'm now the proud holder of a Professional Photography Certificate. But guess what? It's worthless.

Let me explain before anyone jumps down my throat.

Clients will never hire me to photograph their pets, their children, or their wedding, because I have a piece of paper that says I'm a Professional Photographer. Honestly, no one cares about that piece of paper. To me, being a professional doesn't just mean that you know how to properly expose a backlit image, or that you can set up studio lights properly and not have them fall on your model's head, or that your camera cost more than your car (although all these things are helpful...possibly with the exception of that last one).

What makes a professional?

One word: money.

Ha, just kidding. It's your clients, and how you treat them, and the work that you deliver to them. You need all three.

In my opinion, if you have clients and you deliver fabulous work to them, but you treat them like second class citizens that should feel privileged to have your "artistic vision" at their disposal, you are not a professional. While I believe that we as photographers have a responsibility to educate our clients about our work, the fact remains that without them, we don't have a job. We need to deliver knock-their-socks-off images, while showing them customer service that not only meets, but far exceeds their expectations.

My diploma doesn't say anything about that, and unfortunately it's not something that can be taught in school. Regardless, I'm so happy to have had the experience of going through the photography program, and I would do it all over again if I had the choice. I'm so excited to be building my business at this time and I'm very optimistic about what the future holds.

Even if that diploma spend the next 30 years in a tote up in the attic, I'm glad to have it.

Lowell Unleashed

Last night I had an AMAZING fundraiser to benefit Lowell Unleashed, an organization that, among other things, works to make Lowell a more dog friendly city. I had a marathon evening of mini sessions, and photographed seven so-cute-it-must-be-illegal dogs. Each dog will have their own blog post over the next week or so, but here's a sneak peek for now!


Max the Leonberger and Ani the Black Lab


Sparky the Smooth Fox Terrier


Sam-e the Yellow Lab and Brittany the Pug


Charlie the Red Cocker Spaniel and Helo, the Beagle/Australian Shepherd/who knows what else mix

I love dogs. I love photography. Spending the evening chasing dogs around the dog park with a camera and getting to meet their caring, dedicated owners? BEST NIGHT EVER.

Hannah and Katie

People who have a lot of pets tend to joke about having a menagerie. When my aunt says it, you better believe it. The current lineup is:

2 horses
3 mini horses
3 dogs
some fish
?? cats (I saw two or three when I was there, but since they're outdoor cats I'm not sure how many there are in total)
2 kids

Wow. I'm tired just looking at that list.

You may remember Katie the pug from this post. I also photographed her "sister", Hannah. I'll definitely be going back at some point this summer to get the rest of the zoo as well!

Hannah was very sad that she had to stay on the porch while Katie was having her turn in front of the camera.









How quickly she forgets that she just spent the morning outside with her dad.





Meanwhile, Katie was being her adorable, round self.





What is it about pug butts that's just so flippin' cute??



All the animals are loved by everyone in their family...especially by Alyssa. Katie was not NEARLY as terrified as she looks in this shot - you'll have to trust me on that one.



This one is my favorite from the whole shoot. Looks like we tuckered her out!


You have no idea how tiring it is to be me.

I heart goldens

I will always have a soft spot for Golden Retrivers (and yellow Labs, but that's another post entirely). When I was 13, my parents adopted a golden from the local shelter that we named Jake. He is the sweetest, dumbest dog I've ever met. Love him to death, but Lord have mercy, that dog is just not very bright. Now a senior at around 13 years old, he still putters around my parents house and sleeps in my room when I go home to visit. Goldens are such earnest, loving dogs, that my kleptomaniac tendency around dogs rears it's head something fierce whenever I see one.

Especially one as funny and sweet as Skylee.



That golden smile gets me EVERY TIME. AHH.

As you can see, Skylee is a very distinguished lady...





...unless there is food involved, in which case, like most dogs, dignity goes out the window.


Ehhn...if I can just stretch my tongue a leeetle bit further...





And, like pretty much every dog on the planet, she has perfected her "woe is me, I'm so very, very hungry" look.





Sometimes it's the perfectly imperfect shots that I end up loving the most. Despite the soft focus on this one, I love that it shows her playful spirit and the joy of a dog running around in the sunshine on a beautiful day.





The way that Skylee is looking at her mom in this next shot gets me every time I look at it. Total, unadulterated, adoration.





Skylee was a fantastic model and I had so much fun spending the morning with her! Now if only she could teach Jake some of those fierce skills...

Hockey

I had the opportunity to go to a hockey game a few weeks ago, and I couldn't resist the chance to break out my baby, the 70-200mm lens. I've never used this lens at a sporting event before, but it did not disappoint! Here are some of my favorite shots from the evening.















He looks very sad, but don't feel too bad for him - his team won the game.