Intro
Today’s guest is an amazingly talented woman who is based in LA. Her skills with a camera are extremely inspiring. She follows her own path and does not let any trends distract her. We talked about lots of goodies, I know you will enjoy it!
This was my first podcast recorded remotely so if you hear some interesting feedback here and there,
Guest links
https://www.melissareyphoto.com
https://www.instagram.com/itsmelissarey
Personal Links
www.nvmauimedia.com
www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia
Honeybook
Pic-time
Excerpt from their interview:
” I am from Grass Range, Montana but currently living in Los Angeles. I am a wife, mama to two under two and a full-time wedding photographer. On rare days I feel like super mom if I have gotten both kids to nap and 20 pictures edited from last weekends wedding. Finding that “balance” between life and work has been one of my hardest struggles this year but, I am always determined to make it work. I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfectly balanced life when you are a business owner and a mama. You simply just do what you have to do and try to spend your time wisely. One other thing I love doing is meeting new photographers in this industry, mentoring on different editing techniques and not giving a damn about what others think in the process. I remember when I was ten years old, the teacher asked us to draw a picture of who we wanted to be when we grew up and I drew a stick figure with a camera around my neck. I wanted to be a photographer. I would save my weekly allowances for the $5 disposable cameras and would get so excited to get the film developed. Along the way from there to college though, I was told I could never make a living off of being a photographer so, I went to school to become a Surgical Technologist. I also did some modeling while in college and was always way more intrigued by what the photographer was doing and the process of composing an image over being in front of the camera. I remember one of the photographers showing me the back end of his Canon mark iii camera and it all looked like a foreign language but, was so magical. I had so many questions running through my mind. What the heck was f stop? What is shutter speed? I even remember not knowing what the mm numbers meant and thought I needed every single lens in the world to capture different images. More vividly, I also remember reaching out to anyone and everyone I knew that was a photographer asking for tips on how to get started and very rarely would anyone respond. This is probably why I enjoy helping other photographers so much because I remember that feeling of confusion and not having help. I bought a journal and Youtube’d every single question and ran around taking pictures of cups on tables and random leaves on the ground just to gain knowledge and begin to understand the fundamentals of the camera. I just so badly wanted to become a successful photographer and that is why I put in so much work and time to get to where I am today as a photographer. I owe my career to my babies though, if it wasn’t for me getting pregnant and having the ability to quit my job as a Labor and Delivery Tech to stay at home with them, I wouldn’t have ventured into seeing how this whole thing could actually be a thriving business.
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