I never woke up one day and thought, “I’ll be a photographer!” There wasn’t a grand plan, no “aha” moment, and definitely no detailed vision board. What happened instead was life - messy, unpredictable, and, as it turns out, wonderfully generous.
It all started with flowers. A dahlia here, a wild bloom there, and suddenly, I was arranging nature’s chaos into something beautiful. I wanted to capture it forever - so I did. Before I knew it, my love of storytelling through a lens grew, and people started to notice. They’d see a photo I’d taken and ask, “Did you do this? Are you a photographer?” At first, I’d laugh and awkwardly shrug, “Oh no, not really.” But as the questions kept coming, I started to realise that maybe there was something here - something different about the way I saw things and captured them. The way I ignored the rules resonated with people. They didn’t want perfect; they wanted something that felt alive, raw, and true.
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I think my past shaped my love of rule-breaking. I spent too much of my life following the “rules” - playing it safe, staying small, doing what I thought I was meant to do, listening to people who told me who I was and how I should behave. I was always fitting into boxes that were never really meant for me. But once I found my freedom, I realised how empowering it is to say, “Actually, no, I’ll do it my way, thanks.” That mindset naturally seeped into my photography. I wanted to help others see the beauty in breaking free, whether that’s through an unapologetically tilted angle or a photo that captures them exactly as they are - flaws, strengths, and everything in between. When I stopped worrying about perfectly straight lines (I mean, let’s face it, life itself isn’t straight - it’s messy, crooked, and unpredictable), when I let go of convention, my photos came alive. Those little “imperfections” suddenly became the soul of the image.
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I didn’t plan on being a photographer, but photography seemed to have plans for me. It found me in the middle of healing and growing, teaching me not just to look but to see. Teaching me that it is absolutely okay to follow your instincts. Teaching me that I had something special to offer the world.
Now, I’m here with three businesses (I don’t even know how that happened), celebrating the beauty in the messy, the unconventional, and the deeply personal. If there’s a lesson in all this, it’s that you don’t need to have everything perfectly aligned - whether it’s your career or your camera angles. Sometimes, the magic is in letting things tilt a little off-center. Life doesn’t always go to plan, but it’s those unexpected paths that lead to the most extraordinary moments.