How I Started Photography

Hey everyone! I thought it was about time I shared my story on how I started photography and made it my full time job. I hope my experiences can give you some inspiration if you are on your own journey of doing photography full time. I scoured my old hard drive for photos to share with you throughout my journey, you can tell how dated they are because vignettes were super trendy, I had BANGS and I look like a baby hahha

Let me know if you want to see the video of how I went from being a wedding photographer to now making YouTube videos as well as photography on the side!

Deviantart had my OLDEST work, but unfortunately that account got hacked so I can't share that with you anymore :( there were some gems on there. I'm going to see if I can find a hard drive with those photos stored on them so I can share them with you one day!

PHOTO + VIDEO SETUP

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Thank you for watching!

[TheOlandex]

My whole story is too long for a comment - I'm probably your dad's age and have been engaged one way or another with photography for around 37 years! I am what I would describe as a "working photographer" in that I take on clients selectively and generate part of my income in that way. But mostly I view my business as a "social enterprise". I enjoy doing work for charities and non-profits that need the services but can't afford them. However, photography is expensive, so I need to generate some income from it to keep it going, thus the social enterprise angle. I've done work for SPCA, Dress for Success, Make A Wish, Supportive Housing for Young Mothers, plus a few others and a number of non-profit orgs to help them with fund raising. Obviously I can't do all that charity work and still pay the bills, so I keep my day job and do paid photography jobs on the side. I find it fulfilling and rewarding, especially when you see how deeply appreciated your work is to those who receive it as a donation.

[harryvuemedia]

I started my photography journey back in 2005. I looked at my parent's photo album and realized that they don't have a lot of photos of portraits or events. It will be 1 or 2 and if lucky, 5 photos from an event. This motivated me to buy a digital camera back then which was an Olympus. I think its mega pixel count was 2 which was still pretty good. I captured all sorts of photographs with it especially at events. After that, photography grew on me and I knew I love the hobby and art. I always see photography as a hobby first before a business so even when I stop my business, I will continue to capture for the art of it.

[julianmclean]

Many thanks for sharing Julia; always wondered how you got into this fascinating world of photography !!!!

[ypn]

As an amateur photographer (not looking to do any paid stuff, just purely for fun/hobby) your journey + videos have been invaluable!!! Thank you so much for all the knowledge, experience, and wisdom you impart on your viewers!!! Learned much and love your portrait style!!

[jonathanwang]

Your videos are great as always, Julia. Thanks for sharing! I started to have an interest in photography during my freshman year of college when I took some pictures to document my travel and friend memories. I became fascinated with taking pictures to tell stories. During my sophomore year, I joined my university's newspaper to take pictures for it. I developed a passion for taking "people" pictures, such as portraits and events. I plan on doing more portraits for free before I could start a part time business in photography. Since I am a junior now, I hope I could do senior portraits this year. Meanwhile, I am working on my portfolio, mainly on Instagram.

[jaygreer]

It was great to hear your story! Thanks for sharing. My journey started in the 1970s when I was using a Kodak Brownie Target Six-20, which I still have. 😊

[ChemaPhoto]

Great tips Julia!! Realistic business inside. You should do more of that. Love it.

[dccd]

My dad introduced me to photography too, although most of his images would turn out blurry. I’d play with his camera, which I can’t remember what it was but had to screw on the flash if needed lol. I’ve had several cameras since then, my Pentax K70 was the camera that made me really think about going professional, but at the same time I enjoyed it as a hobby, as a way to relax and destress. I currently use a canon 5D mark iv and took it to my cousin’s wedding to take candid photos of my family I rarely see. Loved how every image turned out, especially after editing, so now I’m thinking about doing a side gig of wedding photography.

[th]

My highlight of this video is to see Dan smile 😃. It’s so seldom and I think he is really funny. He could show it more often!
What I absolutely love is to see how much work you put in to your business! On your journey from the beginning to now do you have also moments where not everything goes straight forward, moments where you struggle with something or the like?
And no worries about my comment to Dan. You stay my number one photographer!

[lifewithcisco]

I started taking photography more serious about a year and half ago, I started with point and shoot film cameras, and eventually purchased my first mirrorless camera (Sony a7iii) since then I’ve been having fun with it still have a lot to learn but I know perfection can’t be rushed… as I am still trying to find my “niche”, I’m glad I found your channel as you have helped me develop skills from your “kit lens” video, to “how to pose models” to “how to shoot manual” etc etc … Thank You !

[DannyChappellMedia]

Great Story!! Very encouraging. Maybe someday…..

[Virtues]

What a great story. I got into photography many years ago when i was doing surveillance work. I was in an accident and on honey moon pushing my new wife in a wheelchair and needed some chill out time. I picked up one of my old cameras and began to shoot our story on honeymoon. I was hooked after that, and glad i found a better less stressful way to use the camera.

[classic.cameras]

Love the simplicity of your background in this video! Nice job. Been following you for years now. Keep up the great work Julia.

[zgtsykx]

I find everything pretty in you because your videos are so effective for photographers or this type of people. But I also learn speaking English by your videos as I am a Bangladeshi 🙂

[davidellis]

Hi Julia 🌞 ! Your channel is easily one of the best 👌 on YT 📸 . Congratulations on all the well earned success 😊.

[LyonelKaufmann]

Thanks for sharing, it was really interesting and inspiring.

[doko]

No, no, no! Yes your portrait photos are great, but that's not what sets great photos apart. In my opinion you take the best landscape photos! You've even mentioned a little bit that you use this in your wedding photography. But just the landscape photos in your implementation, are unique! Please more 😊

[pauldarville]

Great video and advice, thanks Julia!

[michaelcliffordphotos]

@JuliaTrotti It's really interesting hearing about your journey! You read my mind once again! Literally two seconds after I decided I wanted to ask you how YouTube affected your photography business, especially from a marketing perspective, you said you would do another video on that. ;-)

I recognized that lens that you used to have held together with rubber bands in one of the photos. It looked like it was in its pre-rubber band days! I remember when you were still shooting with it! Do you still have it?

[HR-wdcw]

Granted photography is just a hobby for me (and probably will NOT become my ful ltime job, except maybe when I get closer to retirement). Part of this is because my past hobbies have become my job, and as a result, I no longer enjoy them as a much as hobbies, and since I love photography so much, I don't want that to end up the same way so I'm purposely (I guess) not trying to make it my job, although I do a few paid shoots per year but it mostly pays for the gear and maybe a trip (although usually not, just the gear, which is fine for me, although I've reached a point where I don't buy that much gear every year, maybe a lens, but I also trade-off gear, so it pays for the upgrades we'll say). Anyway, I started kind of "late" and I bought a DSLR in 2013 but technically didn't get serious about learning about photography exposure and composition for about another 4 years when I took a trip to a national park and really wanted to learn how the cool photos I had seen online, were made. That I would say started my photography journey as it is today, with a "real" camera and an objective to really learn photography although I never thought it would become a serious hobby as it has (Although I'm on a bit of a break -- as some people get to -- to ensure you don't get burned out by it, especailly since I'm no a professional, so it's easier for me to switch to something else, but it's also a genre and art that I actaully like -- cannot paint, play an instrument or draw, so I figured photography was probably one of the creative arts I "could" do. This all being said, like many others, I explored different genres, and am still dabbling with some (like macro and wildlife) but have sort of settled on landscape and travel photography as my primary genres, and perhaps bit of portraiture when I want to mix things up (I guess macro too, but usually for indoor stuff or in wintertime when landscape photography can be more challenging in some cases). But I've tried street and wildlife (will do some wildlife, but sort of can't get my head wrapped around street photography, perhaps because I'm used to thinking like a portrait or landscape photographer where you're looking for a "perfect" photo, one of my struggles I still have today after all these years, of realizing that I don't need the perfect photograph every time).