Today's post is all about my history as a photographer! If you follow me on Instagram, you'll likely know that I started my professional photography career just after graduating college. I have done a lot of different types of photography since graduating from BYU with my photography degree and I'm really proud of each part of my career.

The Beginning Years

When I started the photography program at BYU, I was intimidated by taking portraits and preferred product photography because it meant no interaction with people. I quickly realized I had a knack for health and fitness photography and thoroughly enjoyed working with athletes (not sure why because I don’t have a single athletic bone in my body!). Looking back I think this is probably because the goal was to make them look strong and tough and I love the technical side of using lighting -- especially to highlight athlete's muscles and show off their sport.

In my classes, I spent each semester building up a portfolio of fitness photography and defining my style. I was incredibly fortunate to work as a student under some amazing mentors as a university photographer and I got my first taste of live sports action photography. As a university photographer, I not only captured athletic events of all kinds but I also worked with science professors and dance teams to capture them! Each section of the university I worked with helped me master the skills I needed to quickly and confidently photograph a huge variety of events and portraits that happen on a college campus. It was like a firehose of knowledge and I loved soaking it in!

Joining (and eventually running!) Clarity Lane

After graduation, I continued refining my skills by joining a different school as a university photographer. It was during this time that I joined Clarity Lane as an associate wedding photographer, to fill my time on evenings and weekends. During the day I was photographing marketing campaigns and athletic portraits for the university, but on the weekends I was growing to love wedding photography and dreaming about growing the business. I finally decided to leave the university so I could throw my full effort into Clarity Lane and grow from associate to a partner of the company. I realized teaching and education was my first love and that was easier to do with a wedding photography platform rather than as a university photographer.

Four months after leaving my university job to go full-time with Clarity Lane, the previous owner needed to quickly step down and wasn’t sure what to do with the company or the associates under her. After a lot of praying, counseling with my husband, and way too many tears, I decided to take the leap and buy out Clarity Lane so I could be the sole owner. I was able to grow and mature the company to match my style and slowly rebranded to include education as well as bright and elegant wedding photography.

My photography now is so much different than it was just a few years ago but I'm proud of all of my work! Even now, I love spending 15-20% of my time on commercial photography so I can keep up my skills. I truly believe that I am a better wedding photographer and educator because I continually force myself to grow and be creative in other areas of photography.