I think I’ve written this post in my head at least 20 times. I daydreamed about what I would say on the way to work every morning, and thought about the perfect self-portrait to accompany it on the way home. As things go, I decided to make this short and sweet.

I have spent the last (almost) 10 years as a web developer. That title has had many meanings throughout that time, but whether I was doing flash development as a work-study student or writing standards-compliant code, “web developer” is what I have been. As I have mentioned many times, photography has always been my outlet. Since I was 10 and given my first camera, to having a darkroom in my basement as a teenager, to now…it has always been my creative world.

For the last 3 years, I have been working for a fantastic company. They have been insanely supportive of me and I would not be able to do this without them. I don’t think every company would allow their employee to take multiple days off to shoot weddings. When I decided that this is what I wanted to do over 2 years ago, me and my co-workers would go outside for practice shoots on lunch hour almost daily at one point. One of my co-workers rallied together all of her engaged friends for a day of shooting for me, because I wanted to practice on more *people*. My boss even took a Saturday to pose for my anti-valentine’s day shoot last year. Really amazing people if you ask me. I was able to build my business while having the security of a full-time, salaried, benefited job.

It came to a point in August last year where I was working 7am to 1 or 2 in the morning some nights. I was losing my friends, my health, my sanity. I was so tired all the time that I barely remember anything about it. I remember being on twitter one day during my day job and seeing Meg from A Practical Wedding (the best wedding, life blog in my opinion) say this and I just started crying. All I could think was “It’s time.”

I could not do what I am about to do without the people around me who have supported me the entire way. I am so fortunate to have an awesome circle of supportive photographer friends who were always cheering me on, my co-workers, my family.

And because no blog post is complete without a photograph, here is a photo taken last night while I was out partying like crazy with my co-workers (keep in mind this photo was taken during hour 7 at Think Tank). I love bars with photo booths.