I haven't taken any new SPs for a while, so I decided to use this one from a while ago to share my fun news. :)
When I joined flickr almost three years ago, I would never have expected to be where I am now, as far as photography is concerned. I only joined because I had just started a blog, (sadly not updated very often nowadays - too much time on flickr ;) and it said I could post my photos from flickr to the blog. It didn't take long till I was hooked, and then a few months later I got my first digital camera. Then I learned about Camera Tossing, and posted my very first attempt. It was one of my most popular images on flickr ever - still is in fact - and it was my very first paid-for published photo. (I was interviewed for and it was published in a story about camera tossing in the Washington Post.)
I was also contacted by Jim Dever of Evening Magazine (a local entertainment/news show), to do a segment on my camera tossing. That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have the video (so kindly recorded for me by KnowWonNose) uploaded anywhere on the 'net - maybe when flickr goes video. ;)
I've also licensed 8 different images for use on ExperienceWA.com, Washington State's tourism website.
And now, I'm gearing up (literally - I have some serious gear to buy) for a wedding this winter! My sister's best friend has asked me to shoot her wedding this December. This will be the first time I've been hired to do photography, and I am so excited. I've long wanted to do photography professionally, and I'm slowly, finally, seeing my dream come to fruition.
Of course, I had to decide on a name for my business, if in fact I wanted to have a business. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something memorable, pretty, and representative of me in some way. And something that wasn't already in use, obviously. I originally was thinking something like DownyThistle Imagery - I love thistles; the color, the way they look, and they represent my Scottish heritage. But it just didn't seem quite right. Well, one morning, I was driving home from taking my husband to work, and I saw the mist from the Snohomish River hanging in the air over the water and the nearby strawberry fields. Strawberries are a big crop where I live. (I have yet to find a suitable place to pull off I-5 and take a photo of the magical sight; but I'm determined one of these days, before the clouds set in for the next 7 mos., to do so.) As I looked at the scene before me, the name StrawberryMist Photography came to me. So I've decided to go with it.
Of course, without my husband's support and patience, and my kids' tolerance of my camera constantly in their faces, I'd never have gotten this far.
But now, who knows where I'll go from here? :)
