I remember the butterflies inside my stomach as I opened my inbox to see a response to my email. I was at work and quickly ran to the bathroom to read it – and she was SO NICE and said she would love to meet up for coffee! It was the first time I reached out to another photographer, the first time I decided to take a chance and point myself in the right direction. Only a month earlier, Jose and I had attended The Fix with Jasmine Star and she stressed making friends in the business. When I found Amy Rizzuto, I immediately loved her! Her blog, her style, her photographs- I just knew this was someone I could and wanted be friends with. I sent a quick email with knots in my stomach and prayed she’d respond. When she did, I literally jumped up and down back to work! A co-worker looked at me with this amused look on his face and I simply said “You don’t get it! This is the beginning of everything!” And it was.

Almost immediately after I met [and loved!] Amy – I was asked to second shoot a wedding with her lovely friend [and wedding planner partner & second shooter] Mekina. Than eventually Mekina recommended me to Caroline Frost, who I assisted on a wedding. The snowball effect was amazing. Not only was I getting the experience I needed, I was able to meet SO MANY new friends. Friends who have the same beliefs we do, the same interests we do, the same job we do! It really is a lot of fun talking to people who like the same things you do. All of us are in different places in our careers but we all support each other. Amy & Mekina’s 1920s soiree on the Hornblower Cruise to celebrate their birthdays was an eye opener for me. Not only was it a fun birthday party but I couldn’t help but walk home with a smile on my face and say to Jose, “All those people on that boat are our friends! How lucky are we?”  And he agreed! He bonded with the guys, I danced for what felt like hours with the girls, we all had fun in the photo booth & all through the night I just kept feeling more and more grateful for this great group of people.

Having other photographer friends is so important. People think “how can you be friends? they’re your competition” but it’s not the same thing! Our photographer group of friends has expanded and each and every one of them is SO different. All our styles, the way we shoot, the way we edit – it’s very different – so if a client comes up to us saying “we want you to shoot film!” well, we don’t do that [at least not right now!] but Hey! We know a photographer that does and they’re great! It feels good to help each other out and also, to support each other.

Thank you to all our new photographer friends we made this year for being awesome cheerleaders and… well, friends! 🙂