Oh the things to come...

Hope.. Fear.. Faith.. Wonder.. Excitement.. I feel all of these things when it comes to this photography journey! I wanted to tell the story of what lead me to wanting to be a photographer.. For a few years I pondered with the idea of starting a photography business but there was always a lot of fear and doubt in myself. As someone interested in photography I would look at tons of other people work and blogs and websites to draw inspiration. But, I knew I didnt want to change or malformate my style or depiction of photography art by seeing what was popular to do by others and letting it influence me too much. The first step to this dream was getting a camera. My hubby took care of that. He suprised me with a Canon Rebel T3i in August 2013. I was lost. This camera's capabilities were BEYOND my mental capacity... at first. So, I started ready, practicing, learning ALL I could about to camera. Once I felt comfortable enought to even turn it on in fully automatic mode, I started taking a boat load of pictures of my kids, others kids, things, people, places, anything really.. just shooting to get the feel of the camera. For a long year I only shot in automatic. Looking back now, I wish I would have done this the other way around but hey, I learned and others can learn from this mistake. I then made the switch, to shooting in manuel. OH THE HORROR! Y'all, when I say Fear was involved I mean it. I feared trying to take a picture knowing it would be horrid. And some where, but when I would get it right, it would be magical so I knew this was the way to go as far as the functioning of my camera. I got better and more comfortable and thought.. I can do this! The next step to this dream was editing & the dreaded Photoshop download. I started editing in iPhoto on my Macbook Pro. Its ok, but nothing compared to Photoshops power. I would even do some initial edits in iPhoto and then bring the file to Photoshop to do other editing componants. It was an information overload. I learn very visually so I wanted someone to walk me step by step through each basic componant of Photoshop. So I started watching video after video after video. I learned how to do a basic edit and I was satisfied. The final step to this dream was to put myself out there. I needed a name. This was HARD.. not photoshop hard, but pretty dang hard. I thought of everything.. Here are a few names that didn't make the cut: Alana Hanks Photography, Edens Dream Photography, Handful of Images, and Hopeful Heart Photography. Ultimatly God led me to Walk by Faith Photography from a song I heard on K-Love in early May 2014. As soon as I put Photography with Walk by Faith.. I knew it was it. So in order to put myself out there, I started the facebook page for Walk by Faith Photography. I knew social media was a key aspect to this business and would be very beneficial to me in all aspects. So, here it is.. 5 months later and, wow. Not only has this all changed me, but my knowledge of all of this photography amazingness has grown and grown and will continue to grow. It has changed me in a way that it has taught me more patients and compassion twords others. Photographing children, babies, and newborns is not a quick thing. It invloves so much prep and posing for one shot.. But, that perfect shot is worth it all. My compassion for others also has grown a lot. This business allows you to meet new people very often and allows you to open up a bit of yourself to each of your clients. You get yourself emotionally involved with them and often put yourself in their shoes to try and channel creativity for their session. The most important emotion that I have felt through all of this process is Thankfulness. I am so thankful to be able to something so creative and fun. I am so thankful to be able to capture life and how simply beautiful it is. A picture may seem to be just literaly that, but its much more, its a memory and its forever. <3 Walk by Faith not by sight... P.S. I plan on posting a few photos from each session on this blog! Stay tuned...

Lewing Family

I had the pleasure to photograph this sweet family last weekend! They were such a pleasure to shoot and the baby was an angel! Here are a few of my favorite images: