My work was recently selected to be featured in a national billboard ad campaign to lift our industry up after the pandemic. When I got the news that I was one of the winners, I was speechless. A billboard? Several billboards? A two page spread in a magazine? They must have made a mistake… But turns out they didn’t. It was so fun to dream up an image of a few of my favorite things combined in one frame that would be featured on billboards across Colorado.
When I began photography over a decade ago, I never dreamed of things like this coming my way. I just yearned to learn how to take a pretty picture. I stayed up late at night studying. I had visions in my head that I tried to bring to life that failed. I traded photography for my love of making quilts and baking fancy desserts. I devoted all my extra time to it. I’ve been the worst photographer in a room of a photographers. I’ve worried about starting a photography business in a super artsy town filled with photographers. I felt like an imposter for years. Slowly but surely however, with one foot in front of the other, I took more and more and more pictures. I took pictures everyday. Slowly but surely, I gained more followers and more clients. Slowly but surely, I started getting invited to teach. Slowly but surely I got braver, and my calendar began filling up faster. Slowly but surely my images started getting selected. They started to become finalists. Dreams I would never dream started falling in front of me.
Next week I get to go speak at Imaging in Washington DC and share my love of photography with others. My image will be on a billboard outside of the convention center. It never occurred to me to dream this big. This profession has given me so much abundance and has opened doors I didn’t even know existed. Enjoy a little peek at my billboard project:
