When I first picked up a camera in 2017, I was captivated by the photos I could create. I took this first camera, a really nice point-and-shoot, with me on my travels abroad in Latin America. I was just starting out, so the pictures weren’t amazing, but they were good enough for me. Back then, I was still really into using filters and heavy editing, as you can see below. I thought I couldn’t get better photos with that camera and never thought I would be a photographer. So how did I get here?
2019-2021
As mentioned above, I enjoyed taking pictures with my little point-and-shoot. I took lots of photos when I lived in Costa Rica from May 2019 to May 2020 (thanks, pandemic). I liked that I had the opportunity to create art without ever feeling the pressure of getting a job as a photographer. When I came home, I continued playing with my starter camera. In the summer of 2021, I started dancing at a Latin Dance studio and traded my social media skills for dance classes. The previous owner was a photographer, so I didn’t have to take that on quite yet, but I would bring my camera to practice taking photos. When the owner left in December of 2021, I became the photographer for the studio. I bought a new camera and was ready to crush it!
2022
With my new, more professional camera in hand, I started taking photos of classes, socials, you name it. This was excellent practice for my photography skills. I started really enjoying taking photos for the studio. After about 6 months, I decided I wanted to start doing mentor sessions. I found a photographer in Boston whose work I admired, and I did a couple of mentoring sessions with him. He taught me a lot about portraiture and working with and posing subjects. I was also taking this knowledge and practicing with friends. The results were beautiful. I was still a teacher when I officially opened my business, but when I left, I wasn’t married and didn’t have insurance. Photography had to continue to be a side hustle for the time being.
In the fall of 2022, I was starting to get demotivated. My mental health was suffering greatly, and I couldn’t get myself to do the shoots I wanted to do. By the winter, I had pretty much stopped photography altogether. Then, 2023, the year from Hell, happened.
2023
In January and February of 2023, I was still in a bad place mentally. I had no motivation, wasn’t taking care of myself, and was honestly eating chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner every night. At the beginning of March, I switched to a new depression medication, Wellbutrin, and it has been my savior. But that was just the beginning.
As my mental health got better, my physical health got significantly worse. It started slowly in the middle of February, but by the end of March, I couldn’t keep food down at all. I won’t go into all the bad experiences with doctors (there were so many I’m going to write a book about them), but by the end of April, I had gone to the ER twice, had tests done, and ended up admitted to a local hospital. I moved to a Boston hospital in May, was admitted for 17 days, and left with no answers. They put me on a bunch of medication, one of which caused seizures. When I stopped that one medication, the illness came back. I had mobile IV units come to the house twice a month (I couldn’t even hold down water), attempted to talk with my GI, and carried a bucket with me wherever I went.
In August, I went to a different local hospital and was there for 5 days. I hid the fact that I was still throwing up so they would send me home. I was so uncomfortable and absolutely tired of hospitals. The joke was on me because I started feeling numbness and tingles in my hands and feet. I thought nothing of it until it became painful. It was too painful to walk, even just to the bathroom. I ended up back at the Boston hospital and stayed another 21 days. By then, the pain in my feet was so unbearable that I was wheelchair-bound - it ended up being neuropathy caused by malnutrition. When I went back to the Boston hospital, I had lost 85 pounds since mid-February from not being able to eat anything. I was starting to lose hair and lost a lot of cognitive abilities since my body wasn’t able to hold down food. After a long fight alongside nutrition and the hospitalist against the GI team, I was finally given feeding tubes. I haven’t thrown up since.
I moved in September to inpatient rehab for neuropathy. The pain subsided mostly, but the numbness/tingling feeling didn’t go away. I also developed drop foot from being bedridden for so long. I switched to home therapy in October, got married at the end of that month, and started outpatient therapy in November.
In January 2024, I got too confident in my progress and tried dancing in my living room. I fell and broke my ankle. I needed surgery and was back to being bedridden for another 2 months. While bedridden, I decided that I, now being married and having insurance, would take a photography course to learn how to be a full-time photographer. In May, I officially finished the course and started doing the necessary things to build the business.
Now
I have been taking a lot of family portraits in the past month and a half, and I am absolutely loving it. I truthfully didn’t think family sessions would be my thing, but I couldn’t love them more, especially with little ones. You can check out my most current photos below. That is my long-winded story of how I got to where I am! Thanks for reading!
