My journey to photography started 10 years ago and it definitely wasn’t linear. It actually started with me getting a track scholarship to attend Briar Cliff University. I bought my first professional camera for the sole purpose of showing my mom exactly what Iowa – a place completely different from LA – looked like. I’d say the main reason I’m a photographer now is because I was so awful at it in the beginning. I would take pictures, and they’d come out horrible, and it created this hunger to learn how to produce better pictures. That’s a hunger that – even now as a recognized photographer – I’ve never satisfied. I always want to learn more. So while I was in college I used YouTube to teach myself how to take sharper photos, how to use shutter-speed, aperture, and ISO. I had a lot of misconceptions, especially about saturation, and I realized there was a lot that you can only learn after putting in your 10,000 hours of being a photographer. I absolutely fell in love with photography, with the ability to truly capture the moment. When I graduated with my business degree, I went into the corporate world, but I never lost sight of photography and as I got more and more dissatisfied with the industry I was working in, I leaned into developing my skill set in mixed media. I see photography as more than an art form – it’s the art of observation: finding something beautiful in an ordinary place. In 2016 I took a photo editing course and a video editing course at Santa Monica City college. This was the best thing I’ve ever done. Investing in myself helped launch me into a new level of artistry and I’ve been increasing my clientele (and my prices) ever since. Today, I’m a full time entrepreneur using my degree and corporate experience to power my own suite of business ventures, which starts and revolves around photography.