For the last nearly 7 years I have had the absolute pleasure of living my dream and working as a professional photographer. Not only did I discover my love for photography, I also found a niche for photographing these beautiful little babies.
They say that life leaves clues and throughout my life I always found myself drawn to art. Even as a very young child as young as 5 years of age I can remember wowing my kindergarten teacher with 3-D snowflakes hand cut by me with child safe scissors. I remember my Grade 1 teacher from Gledhill Public School on the Danforth near the Beaches in Toronto. Her reaction to the snowflakes made me happy as she ran down the hallway to show my work to a fellow teacher.
As I grew older , I held on to my love for various forms of art whether it was painting or drawing. In grade 8 I was nominated by my teacher to be one out of only two students from the entire school to attend a National Art Camp for the entire summer where I could receive an opportunity to enhance my gift as an artist.
I was thrilled to be randomly selected. It was an unexpected surprise. As a young child I was very shy and I chose not to attend the art camp. Looking back, I regret that decision.
When it came time to attend college, I wanted to attend St. Lawrence college for photography. The cost of the tuition and photography equipment were just so high with the added difficulty of finding a job that paid well after graduation.
I opted for something more secure and attended Humber College for legal administration. After graduating on the Dean’s List, I attended night school to receive my Law Clerk certificate.
Working two jobs, one full time as a legal assistant Monday through Friday and one part-time as an Internet Tech Support Rep in the evenings and on weekends, I also found the time to attend night school. Within two years, I landed my first job as a law clerk with a large national law firm.
I went on to work in the legal administration field for 10 years. I worked very hard but rarely felt any satisfaction from the work that I did. I tried litigation then corporate then wills & estates and bored easily.
When my daughter was born in 2008 I started to learn how to use the camera in manual mode. I took 30 photography classes in a 6 month time frame and never returned to my work in the legal administration field when my maternity leave ended.
I sold my home in Belleville and moved closer to Toronto where I would have a larger target market for my love of newborn photography. I reserved $20,000 from the sale of my home and used those funds for my business start-up.
The cost of photography equipment and proper training is so expensive that those funds quickly disappeared.
7 years and 700 newborn babies later I’m still here and so grateful to be doing what I love. I love photographing each baby who visits my studio and look forward to a lifetime of doing what I love. Every day yields a feeling of great reward.
Baby Emma visited me recently for a session and I love the soft mohair wrap she’s wearing here as well as this sweet simple set-up.
Sometimes my clients bring personal items with them and Emma’s mom brought this adorable owl outfit with her. I had fun posing Emma in the outfit. She was just so curly at just a few days old.
We used a neutral coloured blanket for Emma’s pictures and here is another I love from her session.
