I have already shared the story of how I took up photography as a hobby. There is a huge difference in being an amateur photographer and a professional photographer. Many photographers do not make that jump for one reason or another. I am one who decided to do so. This is the story of how I chose to become a professional photographer. Becoming a professional landscape photographer is another story.
I must say that I did not start out wanting to be a professional photographer. When I was a child, the backdrops and the umbrellas on stands, which everyone learns to associate with professional photographers, were very confusing and seemed stupid to me. I wanted to do something useful when I grew up. However, the art and trade of photography never crossed my mind. I had other plans, which have already been described before.
So, I found myself out of college prematurely like many other people have. What I planned for my life was not happening and I needed to figure something else out. I could not pursue my dreams of entering the animal medical field. While I was feeling out my new career path, I decided to reinspect my hobbies for useful career opportunities. I had a short list which I could consider seriously, but I found something on the list which would work. It came to light over time and with some help.
My spouse and I were members of a medieval reenactment society called the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). It is a great deal of fun to us. This group dresses up in medieval clothing and armor, holds medieval style courts and tournaments, and even features camping events for large group events where merchants sell their wares.
People in this organization research all kinds of facets of medieval life and attempt to recreate the best parts for their own enjoyment. I have heard it said of this organization that “we are a medieval society that believes in port-a-johns and shower trucks.”
At one particular local camping event, called Uprising, we were speaking to one of the merchants there about some of his wares. As often happens, the merchant expressed interest in a few minutes of conversation in addition to the haggling. We expectedly got off onto other subjects and my new hobby of photography came up.
The merchant expressed to us that he had been a fighter in the society in his younger years. He enjoyed it immensely but time had caught up with him and he could no longer fight.
He was seriously disappointed and full of regret that he did not have pictures taken of him out on the battlefield. It was a time he could not get back and he regretted not having someone, like his wife, out there on the battlefield with him taking pictures.
We got to thinking about this and how many people were in the society just like him. There are lots of heavy armor fighters and rapier fighters who would like to preserve memories of their days fighting. We started feeling that this was something which we could do and provide for the local Barony and Kingdom.
The decision to provide professional and high quality event photography for the SCA was where I decided to become a professional photographer. The rest, as they say, is history.
