Hi everyone and welcome to my site: “A Photographer’s Journey”.

I have been an amateur photographer since my schooldays, snapping away during school trips and camps with an old-fashioned Kodak Star 35mm film camera. The most exciting part of this was receiving the printed photos from the photo shop, proudly adding them to my photo album and reliving the experience.

I have been privileged to be able to go on many school and camping trips and the camera was always with me. Taking pictures became second nature, although at the time I knew nothing about composition or any other photographic techniques!

A few years ago I came to the realization that photography was my passion and the idea of becoming a professional and making a career out of it started to form. Due to circumstances, this idea stayed a dream only until recently when I realized the time is right to pursue it.

Having experienced the challenges prohibiting me from pursuing this dream, I would like to share my journey with every other aspirant professional photographer out there. Maybe I can inspire someone to take the bold step and make it happen!

My Story as an Amateur Photographer

The photography landscape started shifting from film to digital in the early 2000’s, opening up a whole new world to all photographers. However, in my own photographic world, I upgraded my Kodak Star to a newer version and then moved to a 35mm film Pentax point-and-shoot camera.

I was quite content with using film and happily continued capturing my memories, until, in 2006, I suddenly realized I am not keeping up with technology. My first digital camera was a Canon EOS 450D, the first to give me options to change lenses!

Thus, my first passion was blossoming. In the year 2000 I also changed jobs which gifted me the opportunity to travel, mostly in Southern Africa, but later also internationally and this created my second passion. Now I was able to combine these two passions, but the thought did not yet cross my mind to become more than a passionate amateur photographer. My friends and colleagues got so used with always seeing me with my camera that I was being called the “in-house photographer”!

As mentioned earlier, a few years ago the thought started developing in my mind of changing my hobby into a career. However, changing the thought into action took a while and involved overcoming some challenges.

Overcoming My Challenges

The most significant of these challenges was the self-doubt – Can I do it? Is there room for another photographer out there? Will I be good enough? All these questions mulled around in my mind for a long time. I started following courses, following photography blogs, but procrastination and leading a busy life were more obstacles to overcome.

Finally, I have decided that my passions are now more important than any challenge or obstacle and I am starting my journey from being an amateur to becoming a professional photographer.

My Journey

This blog will track my progress, successes and failures (since there will be failures!) to reaching my dream of becoming a professional photographer. My wish is that my journey might inspire others out there to also take action!

Happy shooting in the meantime!

If you ever have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to answer.

All the best,

Soretha
aphotographersjourney.com