How I’ve evolved

I can’t claim that I have been a professional photographer for a decade or more, but I can tell you how I have evolved in my business since I first started.

I don’t even remember the year I photographed my first wedding, but I put it at probably about five years ago. I had a Canon Rebel T2i camera, which I thought was a great camera at the time. I didn’t know the difference between a crop sensor and a full frame camera, and didn’t know that my cheap little Canon and the kit lens it came with would put out just so-so images. So here I was at this wedding with my cheap little Canon shooting photos. Mind you, I didn’t charge a lot for this wedding – just a few hundred dollars.

I had a good time doing it, and I thought I was doing OK. But when I got to the cake cutting scene at the reception things just crashed. No matter what I was doing, I couldn’t get a good photo. The exposure and coloring were off, the lighting was bad. It made me feel that I wasn’t very professional at my job.

This was before I knew anything about photo editing, and to be quite honest I don’t believe I did much of any editing. Luckily, the bride and groom never complained, and as far as I knew they were satisfied with the photos.

Fast forward to today — I’ve evolved in many ways. First in my equipment. I have invested in some very high-grade full frame cameras and professional lenses. I have spent many hours studying the art of photography and I have learned a lot. I look at the photos I take now and what I took then and I see a lot of growth.

Photographers should always continue to evolve and grow in their knowledge and skills. I know I plan to.