Hello! I’m Jeannette.

[Jeannette C.]

Hello everyone.  My name is Jeannette and I live in Edwardsville, Illinois, USA.  I am 30 minutes from St. Louis, Missouri (the Gateway to the West that you often hear about in movies that are Westerns-lol).

Short story is that I love all kinds of photography-portrait, landscape, street, abstract, macro, etc. Truthfully, I love all kinds of art-photography, painting, ceramics, and many more things.  There are artsy things that I swoon over, but since this is a photography site, I will stay in that genre. I am in love with the great masters (painting). I love their use of light, shadows and color. I’ve decided that I want to offer images inspired by the masters as something that sets me apart from photographers in my area. I am excited to join this forum and hope to get some feed back on my images…past, present, and future.

Long story is that my mom was the avid photographer of the family growing up. We had many family albums and thousands of photos that still needed to be put in albums. As a result, my sister and I always had a camera with us from middle school on whether we were with friends, at school, on field trips, on family trips, etc.  We would also set up “photo sessions” with our family and friends (complete with make-up and hair).  As teenagers, my sister and I also scheduled our family photos every year. They sometimes included extended family as well. We would plan what everyone would wear so that we didn’t clash. I would do everyone’s hair and makeup. It was fun.

My sister decided to pursue photography in college and I only went one year. I don’t know why, but I felt like I didn’t want to copy her or step on her toes by also pursuing photography. So, I entered the workforce at various financial institutions. Fast forward 15 years and she is a long time employee/asst manager of a chain photography studio and I have a baby. She always wanted to take my daughter’s pictures and I always wanted to have her picture taken. I used the studio’s coupons to have my daughter’s pictures taken every month of the first two years of her life. I think that I was addicted or obsessed lol. I even created backdrops that I brought with me along with props in order to create the images that I wanted.  I’m sure that it was a violation of her employee handbook or something lol, but the store manager never said to stop. In fact, she would put my daughter’s pictures up in the store on the walls and in albums for customers to see.

Nevertheless, I still didn’t pursue photography professionally.  My sister and I still took pictures of everything. Every outing. Every gift. Every holiday. Every visit to the park. And of course every day. I took so many pictures that when I wanted a new camera a year after I got married, my husband said that I could get a new one only if I turn my love of photography into a business.

I tried over the years. It was hard to make money at it while working a full time job, a child, a marriage, and a busy life. I know many people have done it but it just wasn’t working for me. Truthfully, I probably didn’t put in enough effort. I had a website. I was constantly learning, but I wasn’t confident in myself and that manifested in not working hard enough at it.

Well, it’s been almost 13 years since my husband challenged me. I continue to love photography. He continues to push me. Sometimes too hard, but I’m sure I needed it. I finally made money on my photography in the 2 years prior to the pandemic, but the pandemic really put a halt to that.

I have worked at my 9-5 non-profit job for 21 years this month. It’s no longer a 9-5 due to the financial issues a nonprofit faces and the pandemic. I was reduced to 15 hours a week because once the stay at home orders were in place for the pandemic, I asked if I could work from home. They didn’t like that and were mad at me for not wanting to expose myself to the virus while at work. They forced me to take sick days before they finally decided that they can’t do without my expertise and knowledge so the “let me” work 15 hours a week from home. However, I did have to train someone else on EVERYTHING that I know. (That’s 21 years of knowledge.) By the way, more than half of the people in the office got the virus. The ones that didn’t get the virus were exposed multiple times to the virus and likely passed it on to others.  My husband, daughter and I however haven’t because we stay at home, order our groceries and don’t go places where there are people unless it is absolutely necessary. Then when it was available for us, we got vaccinated.

Needless to say, that was a swift kick in the pants!!!  I realized that they don’t really care about me. 21 years means nothing to them if they don’t get what they want.

The pandemic has created a slump in my photography. No business. Reduced opportunities to shoot without being exposed. Blah, blah, blah. lol But I am ramping up now.

I started pursuing a Photography Certificate and a Graphic Design Certificate at my community college at the beginning of 2020. I was doing a lot of graphic design at work and realized that I not only am good at it, but I love it.

So, I continue to get knowledge both in and out of school and hope that I can get back in the photography business game this year. But regardless, I love photography and my love of photography trumps everything and is not dictated by how much money I make off of it. Although the money is nice 🙂

Sorry for being long winded. Thank you for having a listening ear. 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Welcome Jeannette, now post some photos.

[JasenkaG]

Welcome to Light Stalking, Jeannette! I hope you’ll make some friends here and learn plenty of useful things. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

[Patrick]

Hello Jeannette and welcome to Ls , lovely to have you join us here and really looking forward to seeing your work , thanks for sharing a few words with us as well .. hope you enjoy the site 🙂

[Dave Watkins]

Hi Jeannette. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent here at Light Stalking and pretty sure you will too. Welcome. Hope to see some of your work soon.

[Federico Alegria]

@jeanettec
Hi there Jeannette! Whoa, that’s a lot of genres, awesome! Particularly, I’ll be looking forward to seeing some of your street shots. and thanks for such a generous introduction, pretty interesting indeed.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

@jeanettec  Hi Jeannette, welcome to the forums. Good to know a bit about you and your interests. Look forward to seeing some of your works here 🙂

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