I've realized recently that I've introduced you to my beautiful daughters and my family as a whole, but I should properly introduce myself. I'm the creative soul and owner of Geno Photography. I am a hopeless romantic, and I love capturing special moments. Whether they are at a wedding or during a portrait session, I think they are the ultimate things that make life beautiful. This is the best part of my job. Being creative is wonderful and I am so thankful to be in a career where I can put my creativity to use, but the thing that give me the most satisfaction is creating images that convey the emotion of the moment. Images of the mother of the groom tearing up as she dances with her son on his wedding day. Images of first time parents snuggling up with their precious new baby and seeing the absolute joy on their faces. I love my job!
In addition to creating portraits, I also love to craft. I dabble in just about every form of crafting there is. I sew, knit, crochet, paint, scrapbook, and the list goes on. I also greatly enjoy cooking and baking. I may or may not have a ridiculous love of cupcakes. :)
I am also a nerd. I try to tell myself at times I'm only a little bit of a nerd, but let's be honest, I'm a true nerd at heart. I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy at least three times, the same can be said for the Harry Potter books. I love them all and will probably read them again someday. I also love Doctor Who. I'm not a true blue Whovian in that I've only really followed the newest Doctor Who series, but I love all that "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" stuff. It's so much fun! Oh, to add to the "Carrie's a nerd" list, I also love Star Wars and several anime series. I'm sure there's probably a hundred other reasons I'm a nerd, but those are the highlights. :)
Here's a little history of my journey as I built my studio, I started Geno Photography a little over ten years ago, while attending college at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. I entered Luther with the idea in mind that I would pursue a degree in English and earn my teaching certificate. I love to read and I love creative writing, especially poetry. It seemed like a logical choice for me at the time.
I have always loved photography, beginning around the age of five with my oh-so-cool 110 camera complete with a few flash cubes. I felt SO cool with my camera in hand. I still have some of the photographic creations from my youth in albums. I get a good laugh from them when I pull them out. Images of my poor friends being talked into posing outside of my house next to a potted plant or pictures of our dog and cats. It was probably a good thing I had to photograph on film which made me pace myself (developing is not cheap when you're in elementary school and are living on a $0.50/week allowance!).
When I was twelve, I talked my dad into letting me use his 35mm Pentax K1000. Thankfully, he didn't mind too much because I'm pretty sure I've never given it back. That camera was the best thing ever. I learned so much playing with it. It was completely manual, automatic settings were not even an option. It forced me to understand how shutter speed, aperture, and film speed (ISO) relate to each other and how they affect the images I created. I took that camera almost everywhere I went from that point on. I loved capturing the things I did and the people who were important to me.
My sophomore year of high school, I was able to get into the dark room and play around with developing my own black and white film and printing my own images. It is really fun to watch the image you just exposed in the enlarger, slowly come into being as it is emerged into the developing bath. There are days I really miss my time in the dark room.
Senior year of high school, I photographed some senior portraits for my best friend and had so much fun with it. The next year, I captured her sister's senior portraits as well. This whole time, I had the clear vision in my head that I would be going to college to pursue my future career as a high school English teacher. Never once did it cross my mind that photography could be the career path for me.
I have always love art and being creative. So freshman year of college, I begin taking art classes. As I took more art classes, I felt like art was truly where my heart lies. So I changed my major and pursued a degree in Art. I began photographing more portraits and a few weddings during my sophomore year. It was then that it hit me, I wanted to make photography my career so I began building my studio.
It has been a long road and a lot of hard work, but every moment has been worth it. I am so thankful that all of my hard work and dedication to my studio has blossomed into this amazing career. I love my job!
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