Do you ever wonder if what you’re doing is what you’re “supposed to be doing”?
Having Attention Deficit Disorder my entire life, I’ve gone from one thing to the next to the next, always searching for something but never knowing what I was searching for. And as much as I’d love to tell you I found it, I’m still not sure I have, but I hope to God that I did find it.
I have so many asperations in where I want to take my photography career, the biggest one is to make a living from my photography and be forced to make it my only job. To get there will require a tremendous amount of work and dedication, not to mention navigating the lows that are inevitable to come. Even with the knowledge that moving forward will be a slow and long process, I still can’t think about doing anything else.
For a little while now, I’ve been working with True Northwest Magazine, not for a salary but instead because I believe in True Northwest Magazine to become something absolutely amazing. My hope is to meet amazing individuals (which I already have), to help build something special from (close to) the beginning, and to see where it may take me in the future. Melissa (the founder of True Northwest Magazine) is an amazing woman, who took a chance toward making something that her community would love, as well as use to connect with each other even more. And I think her drive to dive head first into creating something, is honestly what attracted me to True Northwest Magazine. I don’t so much care about how much money I can make in the end, as much as I want to leave behind something meaningful to others when I die, and if that means capturing images to put into a magazine, so be it. Because on top of those images being put into a magazine, they also go to the people I take the pictures for.
Like Mina, who struggled with self confidence and being body shamed before drawing enough confidence to enter a Miss International Pageant. Now my images I took of her didn’t change her life in any way, but while we were shooting, I could tell that she was happy with how they were coming out, and I could see just how much more confident she was getting with each shot as well. Seeing how much “positive power” an image can have is still mind blowing to me, not only for the person getting their photo taken, but for me as a photographer too. Seeing her happiness and confidence build more and more with each shot, boosted my own confidence and pride as well.
Then there’s Simple Life, a clothing store owned by Pamela Morales. This photo shoot was a really fun one for me, getting the chance to not only do portrait photography, but to get shots throughout the store as well. Again, my images didn’t change Pamela’s life for the better, and I’m sure they didn’t increase any sales. But while I took shots throughout the store, and even a few outside the store, I could tell that Pamela was having fun and loved the shots she was seeing. Unknowingly to me (until I read Simple Life’s article in the latest issue of True Northwest), Pamela has a saying “We try to treat all of our customers with the same level of kindness and respect. Everyone deserves to feel special and have a special experience.”, and man I’m going to tell you that when I read that I realized I got to experience that feeling of having a special experience. Pamela was so supportive in the ideas I had for certain shots, as well as being appreciative for the shots of not only her but her store and her employees.
I’m coming up on celebrating 2 years shooting photography in September, and I’m learning more and more as time goes by, on top of being dumb struck with where I’ve managed to place myself in 2 years. It’s probably cliché and corny to say, but I don’t care, if I knew where I’d be as a photographer in 2 years I’d never believe it. I know there’s still a long way to go and a lot to learn still, which I say all the time, but I feel like I’m almost getting into a stride that’s even faster paced than the past 2 years have been. I have no clue still where my photography career is headed or if this truly is what I’m “supposed to be doing”. But I am so thankful that I’ve finally become fully aware of just how powerful photography can be, and I can’t wait to explore that even further with more people and True Northwest Magazine.
Thanks again for reading my little blog post, I hope you enjoy the photos to go along with it.
If you’d like to read more about Mina Kalyan & Pamela Morales (Simple Life), head over to https://www.truenwmagazine.com/shop where you can grab a digital or physical copy of Issue 04.
Catch y’all later.
Andrew Hoyle
