During the last “9th with Nathan”, I begged you guys for help with topic ideas. You all were awesome and I have plenty of starting points to work with now. Thank you!
Today’s article was inspired by Natasha from ISO-Photography in Sydney, Australia. She asked, “What about some history lessons about yourself Nathan, how did you get into photography, what made you want to do it for a living, your inspirations along the way, those who helped and supported you when you were getting started? Was it smooth sailing or did you hit some rocky roads in the early days…?”
As much as I’d like to say my fascination with photography started when I was a little boy, it didn’t. I can’t in good faith claim that my spy camera from 1993 counted as a genuine interest in the art of photography. It was a black, tiny thing that probably never even had a roll of film in it!
The first thing I remember actually piquing my interest in photography was a digital camera I received from my dad on Christmas in 2001. It was a Nikon Coolpix 775 and it was amazing. (It even took compact flash cards which were compatible with RCA Lyra mp3 player!) I was a geek back then and the concept of digital photography was just awesome. 6 months later, my grandfather gave me his Canon A-1 SLR on father’s day. I had no idea at the time, but those two gifts would change my life.
They say college time is a time for experimentation. And it was… for f-stops, ISOs, and shutter speeds. I absolutely loved exploring my college campus and shooting whatever I could. Usually that meant the sunset and the “forests” around UCF, but it was great practice simply because I was out there. It wasn’t technically challenging, but it was immensely rewarding because I created it on my own terms.
There was something incredibly liberating about going out and just creating for my own fun. And having friends that supported it was icing on the cake. (Thank you Maria, Danielle, Jeannie, TJ, Jason, Nick, Jensey, etc.) Especially Maria for taking me to Target to develop my film more times than I can remember! She must have been very grateful when I got my own car and a DSLR. (Canon D60 in November 2003 for $1000 off ebay!)
Fast forward a few years to the end of my college experience and I was about to graduate with a degree in Digital Media. I had never taken a photography course, but it was definitely still an interest for me. If you asked me in May 2005 what I was going to do over the next year or two, I would have told you I was going to become a sports photographer. Not for the NFL or anything ambitious like that, but for local kid’s leagues. I had programmed my own online proofing system and figured I’d just get in touch with a few local chapters and sell the images to excited parents.
Thankfully that didn’t come to pass and the school-required Senior Showcase saved my butt. I had my proofing gallery and a bit of photography on display for anyone bored enough to come see. As luck would have it, a local wedding photographer and not-the-famous crooner, Brian Adams came by. He was looking for help with some programming, but was drawn to my booth because of a simple photo that Jensey encouraged me to display:
Long story short, he hired me to come into his office for a bit of programming, which eventually turned into assisting with office duties, which eventually turned into my first job assisting a real photographer!
Throughout college, I was adamant that I didn’t want to photograph people. Shooting little kids running around kicking a ball was as close as I wanted to get to portraits. The thought of interacting with an individual subject sent chills down my spine. After working with Brian for a while, I started to realize it wasn’t really that bad. Once you have a grip on your equipment and at least vaguely know what you’re doing, interacting with people is possible. (And maybe even fun!)
In addition to thanking Brian for seeing potential in me, I also have to thank him for shielding me while entering the wedding photography industry. I wasn’t thrust into the stress of a wedding day. I got into it slowly, just shooting details or moving bags and light stands. It was the best possible way to get a feel for the industry and not worry about the pressure of being the main photographer.
I worked under the guidance of Brian from summer 2005 to winter of 2006. (I also worked at Best Buy until mid-2006 because my Digital Media degree wasn’t good for squat. Thanks, UCF!) In January 2006, I had my very first wedding on my own! It was my roommate and I was excited but incredibly nervous. I borrowed a 70-200 2.8 from Brian as well as a few extra memory cards. I’m not going to recount the whole day here, but long story short, I got out alive. Thank goodness Jensey was there as a guest because I absolutely needed her emotional support. Ending the day with your battery dead and 10 shots available on your memory cards is stressful!
A few months later, we had another wedding booked thanks to the mother of our first wedding’s bride. Still a little stressed, but with a newly purchased Canon 20D in hand, I was feeling more confident. Jensey came along to the second wedding as an assistant, using the 60D and whatever knowledge I could stuff in her pretty little head. She had no photography experience, so it was a fun experiment bringing my wonderful girlfriend as potential help.
It’s kind of neat looking back and realizing how that wedding changed our lives together; when we realized Jensey had an eye for photography too, there was no turning back! It took a while to transfer what I spent years learning, but it was obvious that we could work together on this. I put together a best-effort website and we ended up with 9 weddings shot by the end of 2006. In 2007, that exploded to 30.
Thanks for sticking around and reading all of that! I hope it was interesting if not informative. :) Next month, I’m hoping to either talk about that very first wedding, location scouting, or how and where to share photos online. Have a question or suggestion for a future post? Let me know in the comments below!
In case you missed my past articles, here are my favorites:
