Friday Introductions

Hello, and happy Friday my friends!

I recently came to the realization that I haven’t written an introductory post about myself on here. So, for #fridayintroductions, I figured I would give you all a bit of background on my journey of becoming a professional photographer!

So, without further ado…

Hi! My name is Lauren Weber, and I am a Bay Area wedding & portrait photographer. I am the face behind Lauren Weber Photography! I am originally from Chicago, Illinois, so northern California is a whole new world to me. I just moved to San Jose two months ago, and it has been nothing short of incredible so far.

A lot of people ask me how I got started with photography, and I always go back to when I was very young. I loved to take my scratched-up, neon blue Samsung point-and-shoot camera EVERYWHERE with me back in 2007. I started to fall in love with documenting my own life. I would bring it along with me every time I went on adventures with my friends or travelled somewhere with my family. Capturing the laughter, the experiences, the memories. I loved being able to reminisce and relive moments of my life through my photographs. Eventually I got my first camera on my 16th birthday, a brand new Nikon D3000. I was hooked.

This is when I began to photograph flowers, nature, landscapes, and anything that I thought would look cool through my lens. I fell in love with taking photographs of things in a certain way to capture their beauty. I would spend every second of free time photographing close-up shots of lilies, drops of rain dripping from the gutter on a stormy afternoon, or my dad’s architecture blueprint scrolls.

During college, I started to get more involved in wedding and event photography. I studied under a wedding and event photographer in Chicago for a little over a year. It was then that I realized what I truly had a passion for and what I aspired to be: a wedding photographer. When I was in the bustle and buzz of the wedding, running around capturing candid photos or helping with switching lenses for the lead photographer, it didn’t feel like work at all to me. It felt like something I would choose to do in my spare time without pay, and that’s when I knew I had to pursue this as a career one day.

During my sophomore year at Arizona State University, I decided to study photography. A number of different professors had told me that my photographs “look like hallmark photos” and that I flat-out wouldn’t make it as a photographer. I approached my professor and asked him what I could do better, because I was not understanding what I was doing wrong. I wanted to at least just pass the class. He told me to go out and take photographs each day, and then come by after class and show him photos. I decided to take this opportunity and try to implement everything I had learned so far. There was one day in particular that was a turning point for me, that crushed me to my core. He was scrolling through my pictures, and after each one he would give a little giggle. At one point, he gave out a belly laugh, and said to me, “why would you even take a photo of this?” and then kept chuckling on, mocking my work. I remember feeling my stomach drop, my eyes well up, and an overwhelming feeling of being a failure, and in that moment, I lost a lot of my drive to become a photographer. I stopped picking up my camera and bringing it with me, and lost a lot of my creative spark. I even switched majors and graduated with an Exercise & Wellness degree.

During my 5th and last year of college, I started working with Mark Skalny Photography in Phoenix, Arizona. He is an incredibly talented real estate and corporate photographer, and I learned so much from being his assistant. During this time, I started to find my love for photography again; I went out and took photographs in my free time again, and started to rekindle the fire that had burnt out inside me. I started to believe in my photography skills, and see a peek into the complexity of running a photography business. He was always encouraging me to follow my dream, and was the best mentor I could have hoped for at that point in my life.

Once I graduated ASU, I decided to move back home to Chicago and save up money for a while. This was when I made the decision to start my own photography business. I photographed families, newborns, portraits, weddings, corporate headshots, you name it. Anything I could do to get more experience and start to build up my clientele. I was working at Bella Baby Photography on the side, with which I photographed over 900 newborns and their families. I also landed a job with Essence Photo & Video, and photographed over 30 weddings with them as a second & lead photographer. It was a wonderful but incredibly challenging two years of my life, working three jobs, and taking hundreds of photographs each day. But I loved every second of it, because that’s what I was meant to do. Photography.

Most importantly, I found that I was able to capture a special moment in people’s lives and give that back to them so they could always remember that time. At Bella Baby, I captured the memories of families being in the hospital room, holding their newborn on the first day of it’s brand new life. I also was able to capture weddings with Essence Photo & Video - I was able to capture every detail of a couple’s special day so they could relive those memories for years and generations to come.

And that brings us to the present moment. I have now been running my own photography business for over two years, doing what I truly love. It’s been a long journey to get here, but I could not be more thankful for the twists and turns along the road, because it brought me to where I am today.