The year was 2012.

I’d just escaped the house after my 7 month old daughter had gone to sleep for the night (laughable – she was probably asleep for 45 min as she never slept!). I drove to Wal-mart and decided it was time to buy a real camera. Real as in it wasn’t a point & shoot – it had interchangeable lenses and so many buttons.

Let’s be super clear here. I bought what was on sale. Figured that was good enough.

I ended up with a Nikon D3000 and no clue what I was doing.

I lifted it out of the box and out fell a very thick instruction manual. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO. This was like another language. My brain was very tired from new motherhood – I wasn’t sure that I could learn a whole new language.

But, if you know me at all, you know that if I say I’m going to do something, I will do it.

So, I got to learning. I YouTubed. I Googled. I practiced and practiced and practiced (until my whole family was so sick of me practicing and wanted to trash the camera).

I made awesome images like this.

(I can make fun of myself as I now know better, but at the time….ooooh…I loved this. I’ll always have a soft spot for those times full of learning and beautiful memories.)

Then, somewhere along the way, while sitting at my desk in our cold basement with the space heater on my feet, I stumbled upon Clickin Moms.

It was a forum. (Truth: I had no idea what a forum was!) I joined and dove in, reading every single tutorial and article. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night reading and learning and filling up notebooks upon notebooks of tips.

I bought so many Clickin Moms Breakouts. Breakouts are self-paced courses that you can buy, each with a distinct topic. I was in awe of the instructors who knew so much and could put it all together cohesively.

It was May of that same year, after a few months of being on the forum, that I saw a post asking if anyone was up for joining a 365 group. Essentially, it’s a group who all commit to taking a photo every day for a year. I raised my hand.

In that group I met Jenny Rusby, an American who was living in Melbourne, Australia with her 2 sons. While we worked our way through our 365 Project, we became internet friends.

That was 8 years ago and since then, we’ve both become much better photographers, and I’m now making images like this:

And:

• we’ve each welcomed another baby to the fold
• thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands??) of images have been created
• we’ve found our artistic voices
• 2 businesses have been formed – each on different sides of the world
• we’ve struggled through making our businesses profitable AND sustainable
• we’ve wondered what the heck we are doing and that maybe this isn’t the right path – maybe running a photo business isn’t the right choice
• we each rallied and decided that we weren’t going to be part of the statistic that sees so many photography businesses call it quits
• we’ve each figured out our worth and charged it!
• we’ve started (and finished) more personal projects than we’d like to admit
• WE WROTE ONE OF THOSE CLICKIN MOMS BREAKOUTS AND IT LAUNCHES TODAY

Never in my life did I think I’d be one of the ones who authored a Breakout, but….here we are. How life is mysterious.

Lifestyle At Home launches today through Click Photo School.

This Breakout is for photographers who are ready to confidently walk into their client’s homes with a plan, a vision and the know how to handle it if it all goes awry.

Have you ever blanked on your shot list or session flow? Find out the simple thing you can do to ensure that never happens again!

We’ll talk you through EVERYTHING we’ve learned from working with clients in their homes. You’ll get in-depth instruction for family sessions, newborn sessions, and couples sessions – including shot lists, scene flow, and session flow plans jam-packed with new ideas, “try this!” tips, and situation-specific techniques.

PLUS a ton of behind the scenes shooting videos, a culling video and a newborn lighting video.

The live run of Lifestyle At Home is from Feb 23-March 9. Join us during this time to interact with us on the forum, participate in challenges and be eligible for giveaways.

Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to get inside my brain, this is your chance! (pssst……and you get to do it for just $25! STEAL!)

I’m so excited to send this baby out into the world, and can’t wait for you to learn from it.

Happy learning,

Kelly