My Photography Journey, a really long blog post by Chelsea Giles
These are early pictures. Don't judge me. I've learned a little since these were taken.
Lauren Clark is running another contest...she's pretty good at thinking of contest ideas-she seems to have an endless supply. This time, a 6 hour brainwash session is up for grabs. Here's the thing. You, dear devoted readers, are about to learn the st
ory about how I got to this point in photography. Let me warn you, this is not for the faint of heart. If you don't like long blog posts-turn back now. You have fair warning.
Last weekend, I went to visit my mom at her new house in San Angelo. She and my stepdad, 3 horses and 3 weiner dogs just moved out there a few weeks ago. During the grand tour, we were out in the "man cave" as Bob has affectionately nicknamed it, and Mom was going through a few boxes that contained little pieces of our childhood. In one b
ox there were all sorts of things that I had when I was really little and one of them was a poster I made in preschool, so about 4 years old. It was the funniest little poster. My teachers had asked me questions about my favorite things, etc. In case you are won
dering, my favorite color was red(it still is) and my favorite food was pizza(still in the top 3). The thing that caught my eye though, was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be an artist. From the time I was 4, I wanted to be an artist. I remember wanting to be an artist ever since.
Fast forward to college. I went to college as an interior design major. I was determined to become an artist, despite my lifelong inability to draw. Decorating I could do, drawing, not so much. But I went with high hopes, dreaming of becoming a designer. After a semester of art classes, I was so discouraged by how "unartistic" I was compared to the im
mense talent of my classmates, I quit. I gave up on my dream of becoming an artist. The backup plan was education. Teaching was a good, fulfilling career I could be good at. So the rest of my college education was early childhood development, reading, math and science for elementary teachers, etc. You want to know what my favorite class was? Art for elementary teachers. Anyway, I graduated with a BS in elementary education and a teaching certificate for EC-4, the dream of a becoming an artist faded away.
The summer after I graduated, I was pretty nervous about the future. My student teaching experience was the toughest semester of school I experienced in all my years
of education. For a lot of different reasons, it was difficult to get through and I felt more relief than anything when it was over. I was not exactly eagerly anticipating a future of teaching school. It's funny how the Lord works, everything happens for a reason and in His divine timing. That summer I had the incredible opportunity to visit my sister in Italy for 2 weeks. She was living there as a missionary and Chandee and I were able to stay with her and experience some true once in a lifetime opportunities. John had gotten a cool point and shoot camera for graduation the year before and that was what I took to Italy. I ended up taking about a thousand pictures in 2 weeks, I couldn't stop. You can check out my blog posts from that time, that's when I started blogging. I absolutely loved taking pictures then and I am so glad I have all of them. Our time in Italy came to an end and I flew back to r
eal life, still very uncertain about the future.
At that time, we were at the beginning of a friendship that has since turned into a rock solid relationship with some amazing Godly people, Brant and Megan Greathouse and Grant and Laura Wright. Megan had done a little bit of photography in college and had a DSLR camera, a step up from my cute litle point and shoot. She had seen my pictures of Italy on my blog and the Lord planted in her an idea that has since changed both of our lives. She asked me, one fateful summer day, what I would think about starting a photography business with her. She liked my pictures and thought I would be a good person to go into business with. The business part of it scared me to death, I thought I could never be a business owne
r. But the photography part of sounded like something I could get into. The dream of becoming an artist was beginning to surface again. Maybe, a camera could be my medium. Maybe, I could create art through a machine. Maybe, my dream wasn't just a dream...it could become real.
Since then, life has taken a huge turn. Huge. Megan and I started taking pictures of everything, taking turns with her camera. There were so many blurry pictures of her puppy, it's comical. A few months later I got my camera, my trusty Rebel Xti, and was thrilled to death. We immediately went on a photo shoot, you saw some of those pictures at the beginning of the post. I bought books, I joined forums, I followed blogs, I did everything I could to learn everything I could about this art. Here I am, a year and a half later, with equipment I couldn't have dreamed of then, officially a business owner/artist. The Lord has blessed me in unbelievable ways, with relationships and resources that so perfectly fit my needs it could only be from the Lord, the One who knows me best.
UNO
It's been tough, starting the business. For me, it meant not going the traditional career path. I just couldn't teach and do this business at the same time, so I have taken jobs that pay the bills. I've been a dental assistant, an associate at American Eagle, a hummer driver, and currently a cook at a restaurant. It hasn't been glamorous, but I'm following my dream. The Lord has given a passion and a purpose, it's only because of Him
that any of this is possible.
This is an image taken at For The Love workshop in Tennessee about a month ago. That week started a chain of events that has been unpredictable. The Holy Spirit rained down like nothing I've ever experienced and I will forever be a changed woman. I won second place with it. I think it's an indication of what's to come.
P.S. I edited this picture with the skills I learned from Lauren's UNO DVD, it's super awesome. I can't even tell you how much my editing skills have improved since I bought it. Worth every penny. Check it out www.unobylaurenclark.com
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