Why I Chose Photography As My Career

August 4, 2023

Why I chose photography as my career? It wasn’t a job I thought of as a child, but it quickly became a thought when I became a teenager. Something about documenting life with a camera was just fascinating to me!

Choosing Photographing As My Career

In my teenage years I was always the family member or friend that had her camera. I just snapped memories all the time! I can go grab an album now of all the times I photographed at school. They will contain photos with my friends, at concerts, on vacation or at family gatherings. I loved it!

When I was younger I had those Kodak films. Walgreens is where I would go to get them developed. Then I finally got a digital camera that a mom would buy their little kids these days I definitely was ecstatic! When I started to realize how much I loved it I knew it had to be the career choice for me. Nothing else gave me so much passion, so it felt like the right and best decision.

College Happened

I did some general studies at Delta Community College my first year in order to get into Louisiana Tech University (that’s another story). Once I started my second year in college I knew I wanted to do photography as my career.

What I loved about my first year was we learned how to develop film in the dark room after shooting images from our film camera. It was so cool! Seeing the process of an image come to life after it appears in the dark room.

What was also exciting was not only did we learn and study different types of photography at Tech, but we also took other art classes such as drawing, painting, graphic designs….you name it! All kinds of art! It was great because you could even mix medium. You could mold your medium into something else by combining art of any kind. The sky was the limit and so much creativity was born during my 4 years there.

When I got my Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 2013 it was the best feeling in the world. I worked so hard as a full time student…won a scholarship, student shows, won awards, was published a couple of times, made memories with friends, and won some teachers heart over all while working a full time job as well. I was always busy and always poured my heart into any projects that was given to me. It was a blast.

Post Graduation

After graduation I always did photography as my side job while working another job for years. It wasn’t until this past month in June I finally took the leap of faith by deciding to quit my 9-5 job once and for all and taking on photographing as my main and only source of income for myself.

Making it my only career I worked so hard for in college. It has definitely been a blessing overall and extremely thankful for all the support that has been given to me that made me finally be courageous enough to take on photography as my career. Here I am today making a name for myself.

woman sitting on the steps smiling at the camera in Benton, Louisiana woman smiling at the camera while holding a canon camera in Benton, Louisiana woman looking through the view finder of the canon camera smiling while in Benton, Louisiana woman leaning again the rail of the steps while holding a canon camera smiling in Benton, Louisiana woman holding her canon camera while staring off to the side in Benton, Louisiana woman sitting on the steps while holding her canon camera in Benton, Louisiana woman leaning against a concrete wall while holding her canon camera smiling at the camera in Benton, Louisiana

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Hey there!

I'm Jess!

North Louisiana Wedding & Portrait photographer here! I am just a fun, lovin, goofy momma of a 2 year old making life happen while leaning on Jesus every step of the way! 

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light & toned portrait photographer

jESSICA lANHAM pHOTOGRAPHY

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