Today, I am celebrating today my 3 year anniversary of Faliesha Dawne Photography!!!! I cannot thank you all enough for supporting me through these last three years and helping me live out my dreams of being self employed making art!
I am not here today to share any big sales or info on my shoots, today I am going to let you all in on a bit more about me and my story! Read on if you are interested!
Let’s start from the beginning! As a young girl I always loved art. I grew up as an only child and parents that were, well let’s just say busy, so I had to learn to entertain myself and art was a great outlet for me! I spent my days after school creating everything from paintings to drawings to jewelry making to designing outfits for my Barbies.
Photography came into the picture when I was about 8 years old when my grandma got out her old Polaroid camera. The thought of being able to freeze a moment in time and capture it was SO interesting to me! I could not put that thing down, and as it was not cheap to keep up that habit, my sweet Nana got me my first point and shoot camera at the age of 11. I then could bring it EVERYWHERE with me along with fun disposable cameras.
I am so happy that I spent my youth through high school capturing all the fun details with friends, family and travel because I can now look back and be taken to those moments like a little portal!
Once I reached high school, I picked up a photography class developing my own black and white film. Not only did I fall in LOVE with the dark room and the surprises it brought to me I then went on to take photography almost every term in high school and ended up aiding in Advanced Photography my senior year, teaching others my fun techniques. I have always been a big fan of magic and boy, living in that dark room was as close as I could get to being submerged in a magical world.
This fun path ended for me after I graduated. Not once did anyone ever tell me I could become an artist or make a career off art/photography/painting, so I went on to go to school for massage therapy and natural medicines. I spent my days still capturing things on devices but did not pick up an actual camera for years.
Are you still reading? Wow, thanks for wanting to learn about me and my photography path!
Fast forward about 10 years, I got a job working for Mountain Rose Herbs, a wonderful herbal company, and as I was working in customer service, I found out about an internal hiring for the Creative Department doing photography. I knew my skills were rusty and I had NO idea how to use the fancy DLSR cameras or the high end editing programs, but I still had something spark in me and I applied. I brought in samples of my old work as well as my paintings and other works of art and was very honest about my lack of knowledge with technology. They LOVED my work and said that it was no problem that I did not know the new ways, they loved my eye and said, “We can teach technology, we cannot teach eye.” To my surprise they hired me!
I was under the wing of another incredible and classically trained photographer as well as a top graphic designer for about 2 years and fell IN LOVE with every aspect about my job! Then…. The big Cov** hit and I was laid off from that department. My heart was broken but I was gifted with the knowledge that I could make a living off photography so I tried out doing my own thing.
I had a few free shoots that I did to see if I would enjoy it while I was working full time at home still with Mountain Rose Herbs, homeschooling my 2nd grader at the time AND getting a business plan developed.
With the help & support of my loving partner and all the friends and families that booked with me right away, I was able to leave my full time job only 6 months into starting Faliesha Dawne Photography. Now I am booked up solid and living my dream! I still have a lot of goals to meet but I am working hard everyday to reach those! I could not do it without the help from all of you!
I am forever grateful for everyone involved with my growing success, especially to my boyfriend who is my tech support, financial advisor, counselor and sometimes my therapist haha.
Today I am sitting in awe at it being three years of capturing your children, your love, your businesses, your art, your passions and your memories. I am truly honored to help your special moments in time be forever kept in your own portals to travel back to again and again, generation after generation. I will continue to grow, learn and engage to become better and better.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all you beautiful people!
Feel free to ask me any questions you may have if you want to learn more about me!
Shine on,
Faliesha Dawne
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