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If you had asked me when I began college what I thought I would be doing in 2010, pet photography would not have even crossed my mind.  At the time, I didn’t know that was a career choice.  But now I’m here and I’m absolutely delighted with my decision.

After high school, I packed up my life in New Jersey and squished it all into a dorm room in Rhode Island.  One year later, I packed it all up again and moved 500 miles away from home to attend UNC-Chapel Hill for their outstanding journalism school. I enrolled in Beginning Photojournalism and quickly chose that for my major.  Two years after that, I was sitting in the campus coffee shop finishing the last of my college work, reading the latest bad news about the job market, and wondering why I had ever chosen journalism in the first place.

That’s when I came across a contest for professional animal portraits and discovered my future career.  ”People make a living doing this?  The photos I take of my pets can be more than Facebook content?  I can do something I love, create lasting art for other pet owners, and NOT be a starving artist?  Sign me up!”  The next few days involved lots of googling, obsessing over other pet photographers’ blogs and websites, and a hefty load of dreaming.  While my friends applied to jobs at failing newspapers, I saw a much brighter, furrier, drool-ier future.

But then I was offered a job at a wedding photography agency in North Carolina and I couldn’t refuse it.  I tried my hand at weddings and discovered my talent for videography, but I never felt inspired by the white dresses and elaborate cakes.

I felt most inspired while photographing the dogs at the animal shelter where I volunteered.  Each dog had an unknown past and an uncertain future… I found joy in capturing their personalities and telling their stories through photography.

People started admiring my photos and I thought “What have I got to lose?  It’s time to leap.”

And so leap I did.  With the help of my ever-supportive family, I boomeranged back to New Jersey and started planning the dream I had placed on the back burner five years prior.  My return to the northeast timed up well with an intensive 4-day pet photography workshop in NYC taught by two of the United States’ top pet photographers, Nichole of dane+dane studios and Jamie of Cowbelly Pet Photography.  These two wonderful ladies from Seattle mentored me and 20 other budding pet photographers so we could all bring a bit of their expertise to our hometowns.

I’m now settled back into the Jersey life and proud to announce that Wackydog Pet Photography is open for business!  My birthday is in three days, so the timing of this welcome post couldn’t be any better.  When I think about being a pet photographer, it feels so innate, so natural, so perfect.  It’s like I was born to do this.  It’s amazing to look back on the last 5-10 years and see how each decision has brought me right to where I am today.  Where would I be if I had never transferred to UNC?  What would I be doing if I had started working at a newspaper?  To be honest, I think I would have ended up here no matter what.

Do I believe in fate?  I’m not sure.  But I definitely believe in the power of passion.  I’ve been passionate about animals and art for my entire life—and now I’m going to make that passion my entire life.

Happy Birthday, Wackydog!