My Projects
I started my photography business full-time in 2010. I was lucky enough to start out with the best equipment I wanted and jumped right in using an ad on Craigslist. I offered free photo sessions in a few different categories so I could build a new portfolio on my website. It turned out to be an awesome move and really propelled my business. One of those people who found me on Craigslist has been along for the ride all of these years – I’ve photographed her engagement photos, wedding, maternity and newborn photos! I am so grateful for her relationship and to have taken photos for so many other wonderful people. I had no idea that I would make so many meaningful connections and learn so much. I’d really like to do a count of how many photo sessions I have done until this point but I’ll save that task for a rainy day!
More About Me
I’ve been around since 1984 so that makes me 31. I am at this point where sometimes I feel like I’ve made the right decisions for the most part, but also feel like I haven’t done enough yet, by far! Before I started my photography business I was just a web geek. It was one of those things that just fell into place when I was 15 or so, when I worked at my hometown’s ISP.
At that first job I did tech support over the phone for dial-up and DSL modem issues among other common problems with email and browsing. I really did have fun there and it set things into motion for the rest of my life. I truly enjoyed the feeling of working with a small close-knit team and of course, working with anything involving the Internet in 2000 was a no-brainer. I was the coolest. But seriously, what an awesome time it was to be involved in the industry. (Plus these random facts: the company also had a gaming branch, went to Macworld, took us on a trip to Chicago, had sushi parties, etc.)
After graduating high school I moved to Florida in 2003 at the age of 19 and began working at a web hosting start up which now has thousands of clients all over the world.
From an article I wrote for theWHIR (a web hosting industry news outlet) in 2010:
I made a quick trip to Walmart a few days ago to grab a bottle of detergent. You know, even us geeks need to wash our clothes sometimes. A woman near me was examining prices. “$2.48 for this?” she muttered in my direction. I nodded at her and grabbed the first bottle in front of me, feeling a little selfish for analyzing if “mountain” or “stream” delivered a better scent. I’m lucky that I don’t have to count every penny when it comes to necessities. I work for the Internet.
A path to all things tech sort of naturally surfaced when my mother started taking word processing classes in the early 1990s. Soon enough I was printing out pie graphs on my homework assignments and became the tech support pet for many of my teachers. Soon after that I found the Internet or maybe it just found me. Either way, it was the best thing that could have happened.
I spent countless hours at that company helping build and nurture it. It was such a huge part of my young adult life and I learned a lot from it, for sure. However, I left that company in 2011 to focus on my family and other things, such as photography, that I wanted to do in my life. I understand how some can stay with a company for their entire life possibly, but I knew when I needed to take a different path for my happiness.
Future Projects
I held onto a lot of domain names for years and never did anything with them. At this time I have whittled my list down to only these, and truly hope to get them started sooner rather than later!
AskMoms.com – Resource and community for parents
Dfrag.com – Possible nerdy community
GenYList.com – Interview millennials on their successes and goals
Photorella.com – A photo tutorial website, or a branch of my photography business
Unpopulr.com – Was going to be a very cheap web hosting plan but stopped working on it
WhereWeShoot.com – Resource for photographers to find the best places in various cities to take photos, without having to ask on random websites about it
