History Lessons Suck (but this ones alright): A Dre Day - My History with Photography

I started off writing this blog with some beneficial bit of information for my clientele in mind, and I just couldn’t focus on writing it. My mind has been crazy all over the place these past few days and I just didn’t feel like writing up an educational post.

So I said..eff it.

I’m gonna start with some different groundwork first before I start handing out all those helpful juicy details. Don't worry though, you’ll get allll the juicy details.

Just not right now.

Right now, I’m gonna talk briefly about my history with photography, because I think it will help my clients get a better understanding of me too. So this is gonna be…

A Dre Day!

(Get it? Dre – like short for Drea which is short for Andrea…it’s not funny if I have to explain it.)

It was a cool, crisp, foggy autumn morning 15 years ago while I was just a young girl…

HA! Just kidding. We aint gonna get THAT detailed.

But seriously, it was about 15+ years ago when I first discovered a real camera and my love for it. By a fluke I was allowed into the high school photography class that was only open to juniors and seniors, and me just a lowly sophomore (yeah, I was that cool).

They did it old school back then – black and white film we developed ourselves. I loooved the darkroom; the red light, the smell of the chemicals, the way your picture appeared before your eyes when you dropped it into liquid. It was beautiful. (It’s actually on my bucket list to have my own darkroom someday. #goals)

I was terrible at first. Taking pictures of trash cans and a shoe on some steps terrible.

But that was how my love of the camera and the process of photographing started. You could say my love for Photographs and photography came from much earlier than age 15 though. When I was little I used to cut out my favorite pictures from magazines like LIFE and National Geographic. I had a purple accordion binder I would sort all the pictures in by size (#organizedAF).

I’ve always loved photojournalism; I love seeing REAL life and REAL people doing REAL things. To see and feel REAL emotions.

I even wanted to be a war photographer at one point and also dreamed of working for National Geographic (which would still be EPIC).

So, after taking photography 3 years in high school, I went to a community college and took it there too. My teacher talked in a reeeallly mundane stoic tone. Remember the guy in the Clear Eyes commercial?

Yeah...it was that bad.

I just wanted to get in the dark room, damn it! When he found out I already knew everything he was teaching he let me go straight to the dark room most classes (thank god).

Then I took a life changing photography class at Humboldt State University.

That photography teacher was one of the coolest, most beautiful, and creative human beings I’ve ever met, and his class was fun and enlightening. It focused more on the emotions and feelings with photography than the technicalities like lines and composition. 

Lot’s of people cried in his class, that’s how deep it got sometimes. Shit got real.

Anyway, after that I just played with photography as a hobby on and off but always dreamed of making it a business - I just didn’t know how. After I had my son, I attempted it a couple times but never put much effort into it. I’m not sure why..maybe I wasn’t ready. I did some shoots here and there but never put my heart into making it an actual business.

UNTIL NOW BITCHES!

I officially launched Shutterbabe Snapshots September of 2019 and I’m never looking back. I’ve also learned that having a photography business is 20% photography and 80% business – which is probably why I never got far before.

I just wanted to do the fun stuff. (Business stuff suuucks. *raspberry*thumbs down* Boring.)

But one bit of info about me is I love learning new things and love improving. So I’ve been putting my heart, my soul, and my time into this and learning all about running a business because photography has been a sincere love of mine since I was 8 years old and its way past due for me.

I only have one life and I want to make it a good one. I look forward to the day when I can wake up in the mornings and have all my days revolve around photography, love, and real connections. 💕