I had the amazing privilege of hearing Amanda Holloway speak on Tuesday evening. If you haven’t seen or heard of her, I highly recommend checking out her website. Amanda only photographs seniors and does one heck of a job at it! She’s been doing this for just about a year and has grown tremendously. She shoots, does workshops and mentor programs in Texas, and she travels spreading her knowledge; what doesn’t she do?! Monday’s talk was mostly about marketing, which I think every photographer needs to take some sort of class in. When I was in college for photography, they didn’t require even a single marketing/business class, so when I started my business I had no idea how to even get the word out about my work. Seeing how far Amanda has come in such a short amount of time is a huge inspiration. I’ve gained so much knowledge in the short three hours I heard her talk and I can’t wait to start using it! Now, I just need to find the time to sit down at the computer and get things done lol. Also, I loved how down to earth she was. She showed us photos she did from when she started out and how far she’s come. It was truly amazing.

I try to stress the fact that there’s a difference between a professional photographer and someone that just takes snapshots….it’s education. I went to school for photography, that’s what I have a degree in. I’ve also gone to numerous seminars and had various learning opportunities. Some photographers are self taught and that’s completely awesome if they’ve gone about it the right way. Most of them have also done TONS of research into the field and really studied hard to get to where they are. Amanda’s work just goes to show that if you work hard at what you want, you can do absolutely anything!!