Yes, yes it has. In September of 1990, I was hired on by The Bay Portrait Studios and started my life-long journey as a professional photographer. Some of you may say "Department store photographer doesn't count". Well, it did back then. We had to set up and maintain a studio, know how to work a camera, know how to pose families, and make the clients happy. That's what most family photographers still do today.
I did my training at the Lougheed Mall and Coquitlam stores, then went to the Surrey store for 6 months, and then opened and stayed at the Metrotown location for 2.5 years. But I feel I didn't get really good until I was hired by Institutional Promotions of Canada, a family portrait company out of Calgary.
I was hired by Keith - who was the "Head of Photography" - in 1993. He, along with another photographer named Glenn, trained me and sharpened my skills. How sharp? A full family session, 5 poses (about 10 shots), in 7 minutes. Yep - 7 minutes. Two family poses, one pose of the parents, and two of the kids. All poses print worthy. This was the requirement. This was also with film. A fully booked day would see me doing 40 sessions, and this would be six days per week. Since this was all done on location (either churches, schools, or banks), I would be on the road 10 months of the year. During the three years with this company, I had visited most regions of BC and Alberta. During this time, since I had summers off, I started doing wedding photography.
I got my start in weddings in 1994. I was hired by a former coworker at The Bay to do her wedding in Abbotsford. I sought advice from wedding photographers that I knew (blogs, vlogs, and internet weren't around, yet), hired my brother's girlfriend to assist, grabbed 10 rolls of VPS film and my cameras, and away I went. For the next several years I would do a few weddings per Summer. Although I enjoyed shooting weddings, I haven't done many over the recent years. This has mainly been due to massive competition in my region (there are approximately 100-200 new "wedding photographers" every year) and my rates would be higher than them. Interestingly, my technique of shooting about 300 shots per wedding carried over to digital. I know photographers that shoot thousands of images at a wedding by comparison. After a while, my photography tastes began to change and move away from families and weddings.
In 2007 I did my first model shoot. I became hooked, and since then I have done lots of creative shoots with models, group shoots and just been having fun. A few years ago I started doing more fashion editorial work, and have been published three times. I have also been doing a lot more fine art photography, working with models to create beautiful artistic images. I actually use film quite a lot for this, usually using my Mamiya RB67. I am also part of a bodypaint collaborative group, in which I have met some amazing artists who have allowed me to make some amazing images. It would seem that I have stopped doing photography for others, and am now doing photography for myself. At the very least, I can pick and choose what to shoot and who to shoot with. And in the past couple of years I've started educating others about photography, with both private lessons and teaching at my current workplace
I'll put in a note about gear, because why not? My original main wedding cameras were Canon EOS film bodies. They were reliable, fast, and durable. The Nikons at the time were not as fast, and I needed a system that could keep up with me. Since then I have kept up with Canon with several digital bodies. You don't want the controls to get in the way of shooting, so the Canons work well for me in that regard (I still think the Canon 10D almost nailed the ergonomics perfectly). My main film camera is a Mamiya RB67, which is huge (6 lbs.) and the negatives are extraordinary, far better than what any digital camera I've seen can produce. To this day, I feel the best image I ever took was with the Mamiya a few years ago, on black and white film with one model and natural light.
It's been a fun and interesting 30 years. I've had fun creating amazing images, I've met some amazing people, and I've learned lots - and that's one of the keys, I've never stopped learning. I can only wonder what awaits in the next 30 years.
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