Apr 7, 20182 min read

How I went from Engineer to Photographer

This is my very first blog post and it's scary, to be honest... it's like I'm cementing myself into the world of creatives, I'm not sure I'm ready, but it's a place I've always wanted to be for as long as I can remember. It's a big deal for me because I'm also a math-loving, engineer...weeell, more accurately I have an engineering degree, (second class honours to be exact, pats self on back *pat pat*) and unfortunately for me the cliché about engineers and writing skills holds true for me. I'm not the best writer in the pencil case, but here we go!! My first official attempts at writing began on Wattpad before I had fully committed to photography, it's an incomplete story about a girl moving from Portland, Oregon to San Fernando, Trinidad where her father grew up. I eventually got demotivated and stopped writing, but you check it out if you wish to scar yourself with the sheer lameness of it right here . Around that time I went from employment to unemployment in under 60 seconds and was home for a couple months. Then one day I got a random call from my UWI friend for a last-minute favour, to photograph his friend's baby shower. I mean what did I have to lose? I said yes.

I was nervous, to say the least, up to that point I had only done second shooting at a few weddings with an already-established photographer, who did all the editing, so it would have been my first solo photo-gig. You know in Trinidad nothing ever starts on time which gave me just enough time to freak out some more. And even though my boyfriend was there, his "throw the kid in the water" learn to swim methods didn't exactly ease my nerves. After an hour or two, I thought...I got this, just smile a lot and people would be a lot happier to let you take their photo, but....then it got dark outside.....under a tent with coloured lighting....and flash photography was not my forté. The grain and blur of the images at the back of my camera could be seen from the moon. But as Skipper says, "Smile and wave boys. Smile and wave.", so I kept on smiling until the very end. When I delivered their photos they were so happy, and I was so shocked. I couldn't believe that something I did was worth paying for and loving. It made me believe in my ability as a photographer, however small it may have been at the time, but I thought maybe I can really do what I love and make a living from it. They are still my clients to date and I absolutely love working with them. Here are a couple shots from my last shoot with them, after their daughter's christening.