So sometimes blog post come really easy and sometimes they are a chore to write not because I don’t want to do it but trying to find the right words to express how I felt or my experience is hard. That is how this blog post has gone so far, I have started writing it about 3 times so far and scrapping each one. Final today I woke up to a quiet empty house and finally found the words to express my experience at The Blink Conference.

So let’s go back 9 years to understand why it’s been that long since I spent money on photography continuing education. When I was in high school my parents told me you either go to college or you need to start supporting yourself. Now that may be harsh but it’s a good way to make you start to become an adult. I love photography in high school, I love taking a photo, going into the dark room, processing the film then making a print. It was amazing to me to create something from scratch and then to have a final product to show to the world, to show hey I created this single moment in time and it’s captured forever by me. I was hooked, so after high school I looked into some programs but really didn’t one spend the money ($100,000) or didn’t want to leave the state due to homesickness.  So in a very random way my mom discovered Seattle Central Community College’s Commercial Photography program for me. What was awesome about this program is that I actually came out of it with a AAS degree that transferred to a 4 year college & it was small where you got real one on one with your instructors. I thrive on being one on one with instructors since I feel like I can just be another face in the crowd when I am in a large group. So after 2 years of hard work I graduated in June of 2006 with a degree and scared out of my mind not knowing how I was going to apply what I learned to actually making it a career. After a failed tryout with Nordstrom’s studio and many job rejections later I kinda gave up on becoming a commercial photographer and went back to focusing on a desk job and making a living to survive.

After my trip to South Africa in 2007 I did a couple of weddings and really enjoyed myself but not gone through the process myself as a bride I really felt like I was missing the key factors on becoming a great wedding photographer. I slowly took weddings still not feeling super confident, I actually would feel sick & super nervous before every wedding. Then after my own wedding in 2011 and my not so wonderful experience with my own wedding photographer I knew I could do this, that I had one the customer service experience & two those fundamental skills I learned in college, so in 2013 after we bought our house I knew that it was time to focus on going full-time. Now it’s funny you would think that buying a house would be the worst time to start your own business because now you have a mortgage you have to pay each month. Well to me having a house meant I was rooted here in Tacoma, I was established as a small business owner and not some random who could vanish the next day. So in June of 2014 after having Mia I quit my day job and became a mother & a full-time wedding photographer. Yes I call myself a wedding photographer because even though I take pictures of families & a few seniors about 90% of my business is couples who are getting married.

So during this process of becoming full-time after we bought our house I reached out to a ton of photographers in the area some never got back to me but a few did and one was Hilary Mercer of Hilary Mercer Photography. She met with me one afternoon and gave me a few groups to join on Facebook & one was called the Cool Clicks. This group met once a month to do shoot and connect with other photographers both full-time and people who were just getting started. This I have to say was the point that opened me to the photography community here in the Puget Sound area. After this I started meeting all sort of new people and photographer who were more about supporting each other with community than competing with each other. This is what I needed, this started to making me better, pushing me to find my style, all because of my fellow peers.

So one of these photographers I met in one of my many meetups was LaTasha Hayes of Ike & Tash Photography + Motion. She is part of a husband and wife photography team also based out of Tacoma. They have a very successful senior photography program here in Tacoma and also speakers & teacher that have also become pioneers of the Community over Competition movement that has been happening in our field. One of the ways they have done this was in 2013 they started a boutique photography conference helping other photographers through education and mentoring during a 4 day conference in a fun city and fun location. So last year when they announced it was going to be in Austin, Texas for 2015 I was one of the first people to sign up even before I really looked at who was going to be there.

2015 was going to be the year I started to focus on education & spending my hard earn dollars on bettering myself since it had been 9 years since graduating from college. Finally November got here and it was time for Blink! I was so excited and nervous since I was going by myself and not personally meeting anyone else that was going expect on Facebook besides Ike & Tash. I have to say I went into Blink with somewhat high expectations because it took a lot for me to get there financially.  But I was ready to learn from some very well established photographers who were kicking ass in their fields.  And I definitely learned a lot from some amazing people, now I don’t know if this was on purpose but I felt the overall theme of Blink for me was “Finding Your You” & “Stop worrying what everyone else is doing and focus on becoming better.” This was both exciting, emotional (I cried a lot) and scary. I seriously had a wake up call while I was a Blink. A few photographers who really brought this to me was Sasha Halloway of Bleulips & Mary Marantz of Justin & Mary. I really have been forced to look at how I view others and comparing myself to them and also judging others work on my own when I should be taking that energy and working on becoming better.

We also had two break out session with the speakers mine were with Reg Campbell on shooting & lighting with Justin & Mary. I will be talking about these in another blog post but both were amazing and very helpful with helping me become better. Also during the Blink Conference we also got to take part in a print competition there were several categories and you could only submit two per category which was hard for me especially in the engagement & wedding category.  Well I ended up winning for the Family & Children category after my fellow Blink attendees gave me the most votes for this photo.

I really have to thank Tash for putting on a great conference and bring some amazing it was a great and I have some really amazing ideas for where I want to take my business including branding, marketing & my clientele I want to work with in the future. I also found a real great community & support system with my fellow Blink attendees and I really can’t wait to see where everyone else takes their businesses too. I feel in the end I got way more than I was planning for from the Blink Conference including a ton of self-reflection. It’s taken me a while for me to find these words to explain how my experience was at The Blink Conference but as you can see once I started it all came spilling out. I am really excited to see where I take my business in 2016 and beyond. I know that I will continue to learn and grow because as soon as you stop doing that you stop pushing yourself to become better in your passion.