So, the other day a friend of mine posed a question for me, it went a little like this, how does a person go from being a mom tog to a photographer....and the answer for me is it all had to do with the camera in the closet. This is the story of the birth of Trenna Fowler Photography, LLC.
So, instead of boring you by dragging out a long story, let's just get to the bottom of WHY the camera is in the closet, after all isn't that what everybody wants to know? In 2008, my husband who serves in the United States Air Force received orders to Guam, we couldn't have been more excited!!! So excited, we ordered a new digital SLR camera, the Canon 40D (what can you say, I'm a Canon girl!). The camera showed up about the same time our orders got cancelled and we were notified we would be staying at least another year in San Antonio. Mind you we were sitting approx 1 month out from leaving, so to say we were heart broken is a little bit of an understatement. Of course, we kept the camera, taking it out of the box and playing with it a little, always in automatic mode, but as a mom of 2 small girls at the time lets face it, it was much easier to carry a small point and shoot camera around. After all it fits so nicely into a mom's nicest accessory, the diaper bag. So, that is how the camera came to take up residency in the closet.
Let us pick up now, with the story of the birth of Trenna Fowler Photography, LLC. In 2009, my husband received orders again and this time they were sending us to Virginia! By this time we had added another addition to the family so we were now a busy family of five! If you have ever tried taking 3 small children into a photo studio to get pictures done, you know what a nightmare it can be...I avoided it, I dreaded it. So, I started out on a journey to try and learn how to use the camera in the closet. This next part of the journey is dear to my heart because it is about mentorship and I am forever grateful to those who came along side of me and mentored me. It is important to remember that when I picked up the camera initially, I never dreamed it would turn into a business, I was just a mom desperate for better pictures of her kids.
I have 2 people who I want to thank for their mentorship on teaching me how to use my camera. The first is my long time friend Katrina of VioletRay Photography, she walked me through my camera settings and what each button meant as well as how to shoot natural light. My second mentor was Tray, he taught me all about using flash to create an indoor studio as well as off camera flash. I know without the positive influence of these two amazing individuals I would not be sitting here writing this blog post!
I think now would be a great time for a little before and after photo here.
The above photo was shot after my natural light lesson with Katrina! I LOVE this picture of my daughter Ashtyn, as a mother it speaks to me :)
This before and after here gives you a brief idea of the kind of pictures I had previously been getting with my camera. The After picture here was taken following my first lesson in studio lighting from Tray! This is my lovely daughter Makya!
Of course, I can't leave out a picture of my beautiful son, Isaiah! This was shot this past fall, for all you local VA people who want fall photos be sure to drop me an e-mail and let me know as there will be limited spots available this fall.
This photo sums up the reason I love knowing how to use my camera, this is one of those moments shot on the fly as we were out taking a walk as a family. I can't even begin to tell you how hard it can be to get a picture with all three looking at me!
Learning how to shoot photos and use your camera however is just one piece to the puzzle. You can take great photos but great editing is what can put an image over the top. And let me confess here, for the longest time Photoshop was the "Goliath" the giant in my life and learning how to use it seemed like an impossible task. Let me put out here I don't consider myself to have mastered it yet as there is still so much to learn. I just continue to study and learn from others who have taken this journey.
Photo of my father in law I took this past Christmas. Edited in Photoshop. I had just started learning Photoshop here.
This session I did with the fabulous Elizabeth was a turning point for me personally, this was the first session that I used Photoshop for all my editing.
So, after a little over a year from the time I pulled the camera out of the closet, with the encouragement of my husband I decided to take a leap of faith and start Trenna Fowler Photography. Since then, thanks to my husband I have upgraded all my equipment and am now the proud owner of a Canon 5D Mark II and some amazing lenses!
I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my #1 fan, lighting assistant and fabulous husband, Moayad. I'm so glad we can take this adventure together, thanks for always encouraging me and believing in me!
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