New Year, New Things

Hi gang!! Happy Tuesday, Happy New Year, Happy ALL THE THINGS!

I have had something on my heart for a while (at least 2-3 years…years, people!) So, this is me stepping out of my comfort zone and taking what feels like a scary step and sharing with you some of my goals for this business of mine. This very blog post will be my starting point.

In 2018, I told myself I wanted to do this, and then our life dramatically changed with Blaine (my youngest) being diagnosed in early 2018 with Cerebral Palsy, and “mom life” took over.

If I’m being totally transparent, 2018 rocked my world. Blaine was SO HARD. There were so many days and nights that started and ended in tears. I was in survival mode, both personally and professionally.

2019 I felt like I could finally take a deep breath and I was FIRED UP after reading Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing! by the amazing Rachel Hollis. I was soaking up all things business and personal development and I was DETERMINED to make 2019 my year.

And then guess what? Spoiler Alert: IT WASN’T! I became a full-time caregiver and mother to a “special needs” child. I say special needs because truly Blaine is special and needs more hands-on care than my other two. From the outside view, he looks like a very normal and very active 4-year-old. But between running a full-time business, taking him to doctor appointments, therapy appointments, and trying to give him very special, one-on-one time…..I gave myself an excuse to put this goal aside yet again.

Are you still with me? Did I lose ya yet? I’m getting to my point, I promise! (LONG STORY not so short, haha) I want to share what’s in my heart. I’m a mother. I’m a photographer. I’m a wife. I’m an entrepreneur.

But it’s not what you think…I want to help and educate other MOMS (or dads or grandmas or aunties or sisters or roommates…you get the idea)!

I have always had a passion for photography (I truly wanted to learn how to take beautiful pictures because I had a brand new baby in 2010 and I wanted quality pictures of my little precious!) but now I want to help all the other moms around me to learn how to take that fancy camera off “Auto” and see just how easy it can be to shoot beautiful and high-quality images!

I would say one of the most popular questions I get asked when people hire me, meet me or hear that I am a photographer is, “How did you get started?” OR “Did you always know you wanted to be a photographer?“

The answer is so simple. I had NO idea I wanted to be a photographer…I went to college and studied Psychology and played soccer for my university. But really I was mostly just interested in the soccer part. Oops!

But like I mentioned before, we had our first baby in 2010 (one year after we got married…and completely unexpected) and still coming off that wedding picture “high” I KNEW I wanted quality images of my little boy but yet only had a crappy point and shoot camera. Crappy might even be giving that sucker too much credit. I look at those images from it and I still cringe!

Enter: Grandma Kip. She bought a Nikon DSLR and we took shot, after shot, after shot. We both took turns with the camera, and she even let me borrow it the whole summer to practice). I did a whole lot of Googling and Youtubing to learn as much as possible and even found someone in my area at the time who was teaching other moms how to use their camera from her house. I soaked up every single ounce of education and soon enough, friends started asking me to take pictures for them!

I think you can see how things snowballed from there.

But the thing I keep coming back to is this: I’m still a mom who wants images of her kiddos. The good, the bad, the funny and the ugly. And I want that for my friends (pppssstt….that’s YOU!).

Trying something new can feel overwhelming, and that’s hopefully where I can come in and help! I am self-taught…I had to look up so many photography terms to see what the heck they meant, it’s ridiculous! So my goal is to serve you- in a way that makes it easy to understand. And guess what? I even have a FREE DOWNLOAD on its way to get you started.

Now…did your eyes glaze over, thinking “but Brooke, I’m a bride and I take a million pictures on my phone and I don’t have kids.” Don’t worry. I got you too, boo! I will also be sharing some iPhone tips and tricks along the way as well. Besides, I hope you will stick around long enough that when you DO have kids, you will know exactly where to start when you buy yourself a “big girl” camera!