Hello All! I haven't shared my story in awhile so I thought it was a good time to share a little bit about me and my family, and my adventure into photography.
My name is Abbie and I am basically a Las Vegas native. My family moved here when I was 2 and I was raised here. My husband and I took a little detour to Branson, MO for him to play baseball in college, but after we got pregnant we knew Vegas is where we needed to be! My husband and I have known each other since 8th grade and started dating junior year. After 5 years of dating we got engaged and married within 3 months. We are alumni of Faith Lutheran High School and we still are very active as I coach High School volleyball and he coaches Middle School Baseball.
We now have 3 amazing children, Maverick is 8, Georgia is 6 and Millie is 5 months old. This has truly become a family business. If you have been following me on Facebook long then you will recognize the kids. If you have done a few sessions with me, chances are you've met them. They tag along with me to sessions a lot when we go to parks and my husband takes them exploring while I work. My husband helps me a lot with ideas on sessions, set up and clean up of my very elaborate setups and is my emotional support when I am struggling. Everyone in our family has a role in this business and I wouldn't want it any other way!
Photograph by Mary Rendina Photography
Before I was a photographer I was a crafter and I would sell my creations on Etsy and Ebay. My main products were crochet items for newborn photographers. I did ok, but did not sell as much as I wanted. After a lot of research I realized it was because it was just a picture of a hat/headband on the table and I needed a model. Lucky for me I was 6 months pregnant with my future model, Georgia. I decided I would make TONS of props to use her as my model. When I decide I'm going to do something, I am all in.
I wasn't just going to have usual pictures, I wanted these beautiful images I had seen other rockstar photographers do, so I turned to Pinterest. I found out there was a lot more to it than putting a baby on a blanket. I spent the last few weeks of pregnancy watching hours and hours of posing videos on Youtube and reading everything I could find on Pinterest. Once she arrived she had a photoshoot every day for probably 2 months. I thought I was AMAZING! I didn't consider myself a photographer, just someone who wanted some decent pictures for Etsy. Below are some of the AMAZING images of Georgia. While they are nothing like I can do now, I love them so much because they are of my sweet girl, but also because I know this was a product of all of my hard work.
A friend of mine was having a baby 3 months later and she said I could use her daughter as a model too, so I got to work and made tons of products. I borrowed another friend's DSLR (the pictures of Georgia were done with a point and shoot). a month prior to Kaleesi being born I studied that camera like nothing else existed. I had read that you can't use a DSLR on auto so I learned manual. I brought it to work with me and took pictures of random objects at work and would mess with all of the settings to see what each thing did to the image as I adjusted. I knew that camera like the back of my hand. After Kaleesi was born I think we did 4 shoots. By the 4th shoot I didn't even care about the props, I was just trying to imitate what I had seen on Pinterest. By the time I finished the last photoshoot I realized, THIS is what I was meant to do. I told my friend that I had found my passion and was going to start doing this. I started my photography page that night and took off running.
It took a good year to really get off the ground, I experimented with a ton of different things and found I loved babies the most. The first 2 years I spent most of my time on babies up to a year old. Every time someone else asked me to do a different kind of session I ended up falling in love with it. I now cannot decide what I want to do, so I just don't specialize! I love maternity photography because I just love seeing just happy parents to be. I love newborns because, well because they are newborns. I loves families and capturing the connection and joy between them. Seniors are a ton of fun because I can get really creative with them! My newest love has been digital art, and those are all of my composites. I just love to create magical images that transport kids into their fairy tales.
I don't see myself limiting myself to any specific type of photography and am always willing to try out new things. I know this is what God put me on this earth to do, and I am even more in love with it than I was 6 years ago!
