If you follow me on Instagram then you might’ve already seen my post about this, but I thought I would elaborate in more detail here on the blog. It is where I got my start, after all, an entire decade ago. (Crazy, right?)
I’ve been struggling lately. Struggling with figuring out what I want to do with this little business I’ve built, struggling with burnout, struggling with the feeling that I want to grow and pursue new things. Don’t get me wrong, I still love what I do, and I’m not going anywhere. But you may have noticed my content dwindling this past year.
I will likely continue to post at a slower pace while I venture off exploring other opportunities and experiences, and one of those things is photography. So yeah, I guess I’m a photographer now? I even have a brand new Instagram account, so if you want to keep up with my photography then you can follow me at @ErinSpainPhoto.
As a blogger I had to learn photography skills in order to take photos for my website and Instagram, and in the process I fell in love with it.
It’s always been one of my favorite parts of this job. When I was visiting my family in Indiana for Thanksgiving, my sister asked me to shoot some portraits of her cute family. (She gets the sister discount, aka free.) I had been thinking about getting more into portrait photography for a while, but that photo shoot helped me realize that maybe it’s something I should pursue more seriously.
I shot some portraits of my boys before the holidays, and like it or not they’ve been my practice models.
I finally decided to sign up for a photography course at the Atlanta School of Photography to really hone my skills even more and experiment with shooting in different settings and under different lighting conditions, etc. The same day that I signed up for the class, I coincidentally got an email from a pop culture website asking if I would ever be interested in shooting concerts on behalf of their site.
What you don’t know is the music scene was such a huge part of my life when I was in college. I went to shows constantly, befriended bands, and had so much fun. I’ve always loved music and it’s always been such a huge part of my life.
My kids rarely listen to music, and I always ask them, “how?????,” because I don’t think I would have survived adolescence without music. It was my therapy. No matter what I was going through, there was always a song for it. That’s true still to this day. But when I got married, I lost that part of myself.
I stopped going to shows. (Needless to say, my husband wasn’t exactly comfortable with me hanging out on tour buses anymore.) And I even stopped listening to music for a very, very long time. Years. I didn’t buy or download a single song.
It’s like I just stopped being me for a long time. Recently I have found that part of myself again. I’ve been invited to shows and remembered how much I love the energy, and honestly being newly single it’s funny how many musicians have found their way into my DMs. (Which is nice when you want to go to a show without having to buy a ticket! Ha)
It’s been fun though, re-exploring that scene. So when a friend invited me to watch his band play when they were in town a few months ago, I saw the photographer at that show and thought, “hey that would be really fun.” And then went about my life without giving it another thought … until I got that email. And something clicked and I thought, YES, that’s what I want to do.
I want to combine my love of music with my love of photography. So I will be shooting my first show next week, and I’m a little nervous since I haven’t shot in those types of lighting conditions with so much movement before, but it will be a great learning experience.
I also plan on starting a side business shooting portraits, so if you’re in Atlanta and want to chat about setting up a session, email me at [email protected]. I love all types of photography, and I will be sharing all of my work on my new Instagram page as well as my portfolio page here.
I do still love interior photography too, as it was my first love, but I have more experience with that than other types of photography so in addition to interiors I want to expand on my skillset.
My main objective with this website has always been to challenge myself to learn new skills while hopefully inspiring others to do the same. I guess this is just an example of me practicing what I preach and challenging myself to learn a new skill (or in this case, improve upon one), and branching out even when change seems a little scary.
I need a new challenge, a new path, something new to be excited about. I need to pursue something new that lights a fire in me the way DIY always has.
That said, I do still plan on building and making and decorating things, it will just be on a sporadic basis, just like it was this past year. So if you don’t want to miss a post, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter and/or subscribe to my YouTube channel.
I also plan on starting a photography blog documenting my work and sharing tips and tricks, etc. It will be on this same website but categorized separately from my DIY blog. I will likely be restructuring the website to accommodate that so it doesn’t get too confusing, and so the people who come here for DIY content can easily be directed to it, and same for those who just want the photography content.
Thank you all so much for being here and for following along. I hope you know how much it truly does mean to me.
If you enjoyed this post, please check out my project gallery.
You can also see my photography portfolio here.
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