Every year when I make my annual trip to Lexington I start feeling a little sappy. I can’t help but remember that week I spent in Lexington 4 years ago, the week when my Equine Photography Brand was born. The night that I stayed up all night long and built my entire website because I was so excited about this idea I had and I knew it was the next chapter for my business.
What some of you may not know is I started out photographing horses at the barn I was a working student at, Windy Knoll Farm, I had never dreamt or even thought about being a photographer. It was truly something I enjoyed doing, and it just so happened to kill some time while I was watching others ride or take lessons. That was until the owner of a Livestock Photography company contacted me and asked if I would want to come work for them after he saw the portraits I was posting from the barn I was working at. I had interned with them as an assistant at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, helping organize the kiddos and hand out image numbers at the backdrop, once again it had never crossed my mind that I would be a photographer one day.
I was in my last semester of college at Texas A&M about to graduate with an Animal Science Degree, going through somewhat of a “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE” crisis, and I decided, I think I can make this a business. My entire family thought I was insane, but luckily Austin, who was just my boyfriend at the time, now my husband, fully supported me and said “Go do it!” and I did.
As a crazy series of events unfolded I found myself photographing weddings, and eventually built an incredibly successful Wedding & Newborn Photography business. I managed to build a photography studio on our property, which I am incredibly happy to say I paid for with cash as we built it, I spent that entire year putting back money and building my little studio where I could photograph Newborns and meet with clients. One day I sat back and wondered, how on earth did I end up here?
People had always asked me how I ended up photographing Weddings & Newborns and although I truly loved what I was doing I would often times think back to the early days photographing horses at the barn and wonder why I had never pursued that. Four years ago I decided to go out on a whim and attend an Equine Photography Workshop in Kentucky, it sounded like fun to get to go see Kentucky and also photograph some horse so off I went.
I spent a few days before the workshop driving through the winding roads of Kentucky exploring, in awe of all of the beautiful farms, going on tours and seeing all there was to do and see in Kentucky. I might add, I did this all by myself. This was my first real traveling adventure on my own, the first of many. Since this trip I have put nearly 200,000 miles on my truck and flown across the world to photograph horses.
I really started to ask myself, why I wasn’t photographing horses and what was stopping me. At that point I realized, there was absolutely no reason why, and the only logical thing to do was to figure out how to make it happen. I went back to my hotel that night, created a logo, built an entirely new website just for equine photography, and sat there wondering how on earth I would build this brand new business.
This is where 365 Days of Horses was born, sitting in my hotel that night. I just knew that if I set out to photograph 365 horses that year, and I shared all of their stories that surely I would be able to pursue this whole new world of Equine Photography. I spent the next few months setting up 365 Days of Horses, reading hundreds of applications, picking out amazing horses with phenomenal deserving stories, and started photographing them. January 1st of the following year I would start sharing all of their stories on my blog. Can I just say that most people thought I was CRAZY! To this day I tell people about my journey and how it started with horses and they still look at me kind of like, wait, you did what?!
At this point my husbands career was in a place where I knew it was inevitable that he would start traveling again for work, and I had always told him that if he had to go work in some random state that I would always find a way to go with him. I knew that setting up a business that would allow me to do that was super important. I decided I would also travel all over the US photographing these horses, and I did! As luck would have it, my husband had to go to Missouri to work in the middle of that year and I was able to load up all of the horses and go with him to live in Missouri, knowing that I had horses all over the place that I could easily travel to and photograph.
Now, here I am, sitting in Kentucky at an RV park with my little camper that I just purchased for my business travels, this is my 4th year back in Kentucky photographing horses and I can’t help but think how different my life would be if I would have never taken off 4 years ago and made a trip out here which inspired me to come up with that crazy idea to photograph 365 Horses. If I wouldn’t have decided to sit up all night long and build a website, and I would have put it off because I had a list of a million other things to do.
I sit here wondering what things will look like next year on my trip back to Kentucky, so many exciting changes are happening in life and I know that this is my last “solo” trip. Next year I will have a sidekick in tow, and I will be learning how to juggle an entirely new chapter in life, being both a business owner and a mom. Some people have said to me, you know life is going to change you won’t be able to do what you do and just take off across the country and travel all over the place, but I think most people who know me and have followed my journey for the last 8 years know that it takes a lot to stop me from these adventures and I will find a way to still make it happen.
Spoiler alert. You also get to see my first ever tiny bump picture.
I have learned that sometimes the best decisions in life are the ones you just dream up one day and attack full force without worrying about what if this doesn’t work. They are the leaps you take on a whim. Sometimes life is about taking chances, and I can 100% say I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for taking chances and just going for things.
Having a photography business has changed my life in so many ways, and continues to change my life. I am so blessed to get to meet so many different people from all over the world, to hear their stories, to get to know them and their families. I have always said that each one of my clients is part of my family, and I truly do mean that. Each one of my clients, and every single horse I photograph takes a little piece of my heart. I know it sounds crazy to say this, but my hope is that each of my clients knows this and truly feels this. I love getting to hear updates from my clients, see them at shows, watch their families grow and change, and be there with them to celebrate all of the little moments.
I am eternally grateful for each and every person who has ever trusted me to photograph them, or their horse, and create these once in a lifetime memories for them. I truly believe that photographs give us this really cool ability, to look back and remember the magical times and moments in our life even in our darkest times. There is something so powerful about having a bad day, coming home from the barn frustrated because your trusty steed decided he wanted to launch you through the air, but being able to walk into your home and see a portrait of him and remember, “well he really isn’t that bad, today was just a bad day…tomorrow we can have that again” to be able to have a fight with your spouse and look at your wedding portrait on the wall and remember in that very moment why you married them, to be frustrated as a parent and look up and see those little squishy baby cheeks and remember that all of the heartache is worth it.
Sometimes life needs a little perspective, a little reminder, a little nudge to show us that things aren’t so bad…or that they will be ok. I am thankful that I am able to give my clients an eternal reminder of the little moments of magic that exist in their every day life.
