As a florist, I have encountered a lot of talented photographers, sometimes from the very early stages in their careers. Photographers like that have become some of the best out there, such as our dear friends Cat and Adi from Next Exit Photography. It just take a few moments looking at their work and you can tell that they are very talented and they deserve to be where they are today. There are some other well established photographers out there that have engraved their name in the wedding industry by producing outstanding images, over and over again. Photographers such as Duke from Duke Images, Christine Marie, Ben Chrisman and many more.
From time to time, I run into individuals that are trying to get into wedding photography, either because they like it or because they are drawn into it because of the money. Most of these “NEW FACES”, I never get to see again or hear from, they come and go like shooting stars. A few months ago, I ran into a new face, someone that I had never seen in or worked with, that was Jordana Taylor from Hazelnut Photography. I have to be honest, when I first saw her I thought that she was the assistant to the main photographer, she was walking around shooting here and there as if she was testing her camera. Little did I know that it was Jordana scouting the location to capture the details, definitely one of her strengths. As the day progressed, I kept on watching her take the shots of the details that some photographers miss. By the end of the day, I asked for one her cards and I told her that I would send her an email to request some images. I did, I sent it the very following day and a few days later, I received a disc on the mail, it was from Jordana with a sweet note telling me that she had a lot of fun shooting my flowers. I popped the disk on my computer and when I started to view the images, I was blown away by the attention to detail and the ability to capture the elements that I wanted to emphasize while making the flowers. When I got to see the bridal bouquet, it was just like I had imagined it in my head before I got into making it, it was sweet to see it captured on her photos as it was in my mind. It was like if she took a picture of the image in my head, I have no more words to describe it. I instantly became a fan of her images, i went to her website and indulged on her work. Little did I know that we were meant to work together again couple of months later, at a small wedding in a very unique place, the Figueroa Hotel. The wedding took place and when i got the pictures from our second common customer, I couldn’t believe my eyes, her consistency showed right away, it was no lucky shot on the first wedding, she had done it again.
Here are the two photographs side by side, it’s just incredible how she capture every little detail on each bouquet in a single shot, just awesome!
Photos by Jordana from Hazelnut Photography
As I stated before, her images are so fabulous that both of these weddings got picked up but a well know blogger, Leila Khalil from Inspired By This and the other one by LA Style Unveiled.
Last week I ran into Jordana at a Wedding Industry party and I got a chance to thank her personaly for making my work worthwhile. At the same time, I was curious to know about her photography background and I asked her: “So, How did you get into photography?” at that time she told me that it was kind of a long story but since I wanted to hear it, I asked her to email me with her story, that I was really interested to know; this is what she emailed me a couple of days later:
I never, in a million years, would have thought I’d be a professional photographer, Never… Ever. I’ve always loved photography, it was my hobby and it made me happy. But to live my life, doing something I absolutely loved AND be able to pay my mortgage. I never in a million years.
It was after my own wedding that I began to consider photography. After putting my heart and soul into our wedding I hit the Post Wedding Slump. I’d put every inch of my creative self into the wedding and, now that it was over, I was left with a pile of Thank You notes to write and no outlet for my creativity! I began shooting more to fill the gap. Shooting my food and shooting my cats and shooting flowers. I was reading everything I could find on photography. I was feeling creative again! Suddenly I was shooting my closest friends and then their friends and then people were calling me to shoot them.
Right before my eyes a business began to emerge!
Even though I never could have imagined myself here, I now can’t imagine being anywhere else. Photography was the absolute perfect career choice for me and I’m so happy that it found me. I am incredibly lucky to live my life, doing what I love, with clients I adore!
My dear Jordana, thank you for sharing your story with me, I totally know what you mean when you say that your career found you, I am also the result of being found by my career. I wish you the best and I hope to work with you again soon.
