The Modes

You’ve heard that age old say “Get familiar with your camera” right? It comes right after you ask a seasoned photographer how you get better at taking photos. It irks me that not a lot of photographers take the time to explain the basics of what’s on the camera. Every camera has manual, shutter priority, aperture priority, and custom REGARDLESS of the brand. It’s universal. That said, I’m going to explain the basics of each one so that you can choose what works best for you.

Let’s start off easy. Manual mode is what most photographers use. I am not one of them (keep reading and I’ll explain why later. Plus I’m a rule breaker lol). Manual mode is where you have the most control and you make every decision of the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. Having that triangle dialed in is the difference between having your photos look like a two year old took it and a seasoned professional. While somethings you can fix in post if you take your ISO a little bit too far over or under. It does make a difference. I have personally found over my 8 years of my career that it was lacking in sharpness. I want my images to feel like you can touch it it looks so real. While yes lens choices have something to do with it, and well cover that later, as well as practice, manual mode just wasn’t cutting it for the standards I had in my own head. So I kept searching for more answers.

  Aperture priority is where the camera selects the shutter speed while you control the aperture. This one I’m not a fan of at all. It’s a royal pain! I like my talent to be moving cause it’s more natural looking in the photo. So having a faster shutter speed to freeze those natural mechanics if the body is important to me and tells a better story. If the camera picks a shutter speed that’s slower it’s going to cause a blurring effect that I don’t want. Also, if you’re in sports photography you’re going to miss an epic moment you’ll never get back.

  Shutter priority is my jam! Shutter priority is where the camera chooses the aperture while I control the speed of the shutter. This has made my photos sharper! Over the years my eyes have gotten used to the idea. I can definitely tell when I shoot between manual and shutter priority. While the difference might be small but noticeable, small decisions that compound make huge impacts.

What mode will you choose?

The Journey

For most of my life, I struggled to fit in and express myself in a way that would allow me to feel free, to feel like I mattered in a space and allowed me to give life to vivid images in my mind that would leave me restless day in and day out. They wanted to escape. I struggled to find the right ways to express my feelings about certain subjects. My husband, John, and I had just had our beautiful baby boy, Henry. We wanted to take family photos, so we hired a photographer. After being around the photographer and his assistant, I left that photography session in blissful wonder of what it would be like to be a photographer. One year later, I took the leap and got myself a DSLR Canon camera. I watched countless YouTube videos, teaching myself everything I could learn about the basics. I never looked back.

The photographer that I followed the most and who influenced a lot of my journey when I first started was YouTuber Peter McKinnon. His tutorials and inspirational videos always fired me up. Through his videos, I found a consistent need to improve. However, ultimately, my faith in God and His nudging me to walk this path was what did it for me. I had always felt like my purpose in life was unfulfilled. I kept asking God, "What is my Kingdom purpose in this life?" This is what He showed me, and I LOVE every bit of it!

As I started my journey through photography and began to fall madly in love with it, I made a bucket list of people I wanted to shoot. These people ranged from movie stars to household MMA names. One of those people was Nate Diaz. My jiu-jitsu coach, Shawn Hammonds, owner of Shawn Hammonds Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Nashville, TN, got the opportunity to bring him to the gym along with Jake Shields to do a seminar in the spring of 2023. Shawn wanted me there to shoot the seminar. The level of trust Shawn had in my work and the belief he had in me, I knew I had what it took to make it in this field. That's what solidified it for me. That's when I knew photography was for me.

My approach to photography is rooted in realism but with storytelling at its core. I want people to feel the photo and let it move them in a way that encourages, inspires, and transforms them. I've allowed my style to evolve with desaturated, dark, and moody colors. It reminds me that the world can be a dark place, but I want my subjects to embody confidence, that spark of triumph, and a no-quit attitude. Even if the photo portrays sadness, I still want it to embody some form of hope. I continue to discover how I can challenge myself by surrounding myself with those who are at higher levels than me.

A lot of my learning came from teaching myself through YouTube tutorials. I would practice everything I learned whenever I had the chance. Once I outgrew that, I found ProEDU and Phlearn. I keep educating myself at every opportunity possible.

My creative process involves conversation. Often, I'll ask clients to lunch. I want to immerse myself in their vision, not in a stuffy office. I find that great food, great conversation, and a change of scenery get the creative juices flowing for everyone, resulting in a great finished product! When I have the details, I let music do the rest. Music has had a great influence on my creative process. It helps me create movies in my head, giving me a 3-D view of the shot. As someone diagnosed with ADHD, my ADHD has also heavily influenced my creative process. It allows me to rapidly go through ideas and problem-solve in a different kind of way. When it comes to the shoot day, I like to sit at the location 30 minutes to an hour before everyone gets there, just to feel the space, to feel the calmness before the storm, and envision the game plan beforehand as I review the shot list. I also pray and ask God to give me the vision to help me be present in the moment, to see everything I need to, and to be able to adjust on the fly with ease.

For any aspiring photographers reading this blog, my advice to you is to be yourself. Don't be afraid to discover who you are in your photos. When the naysayers come, KEEP GOING! We all started with our photos looking like hot garbage. Don't stop because you get a shit ton of no's. It only takes one yes. Keep learning. Seize every opportunity to learn.