Things changed dramatically for me when I decided to start creating the life of my dreams.
I'm not sure how or why it happened, but for too long, I meandered, letting life happen to me, and always felt a little lost. It sounds crazy saying it, but I hadn't realised that I could live a life I dreamed of. I had generally done what I thought I was "supposed" to do, but always felt a disconnect.
Then one day, in what feels like a lifetime ago now, in walked who would be my husband, Michael, our paths crossing when he came to fix my computer, he was an IT guy for the parent company of mine. We got along so well, he was different to anyone I'd ever met and there was something about him that I was immediately drawn to - now 20 years later, he's even more incredible. Michael inspired me beyond words and saw something in me that I was almost too scared to see. He helped me open my eyes and look at the world in a new way, which was not only amazing, but confusing and scary.
From the very beginning, he encouraged me to do something I'd always dreamed of doing, and having always been obsessed with all things makeup, beauty, and movies, I enrolled in a full time makeup and special effects course while I was working a full-time corporate role to pay rent. I was terrified, but somehow I made it work, and I thrived.
I started working as a freelance makeup artist and loved the creative experience, learning and practicing techniques, learning about shoot concepts and bringing ideas to life. I loved working with photographers and seeing how they created. I captured my makeup work on a 3 megapixel point and shoot camera that I had saved up hard to buy. Little did I know where this interest and passion for creative work was going to lead me!
Being in our early 20s, we wanted an adventure and moved to another country for a fun experience. I worked a corporate role to pay the rent, did some makeup work and brought my little camera along to capture all the amazing things we were seeing. I quickly became obsessed with photography. We came back to Perth and I bought my first DSLR camera and I became fascinated with learning, attending workshops with photographers I looked up to, absorbing every youtube video I could, editing and practicing daily. We lived in a tiny apartment near the beach and I spent countless hours capturing the ocean, sunrises, sunsets, nature and life around me. I then started capturing people, and worked on bringing the genres of landscapes and portraits together, which was much harder than I'd ever anticipated.
Fast forward through many years of trial, error, education, work and obsessive practice, I am grateful to be confident in my work and producing consistently beautiful results.
I then started my business in 2017 and have committed to refining my craft and continually bettering myself throughout, and being awarded and accredited for my work has been so important in this. In mid-2022 I made the life changing decision to leave my corporate role of 11 years and decided to back myself in, and go full-time in my photography business.
Michael and I are now proud parents to our two young nature loving girls Lily and Summer, who are our absolute world, and we love creating adventures with. We laugh at ourselves more often than we probably should, and our home is full of crazy fun, loud music and wild ideas.
Our girls have made me a better person by miles, and are quite possibly the cause for my increased love of iced coffee! You'll find us at the beach, exploring the nature reserves and estuary, or enjoying creating our family home that we built by the beach and has been an intense labour of love! Oh, and despite him working in a completely different field now, Michael is still my IT guy.
