Anywho, I thought I would start with a few basic posts over the next few days/weeks (I have a baby...things take longer now:)) explaining who I am, why I do this, what it's like to get your photos taken by me, etc. So here goes.
Who am I?
Most basically I am Melissa Pauquette. I've been married to a wonderful man named Brad Pauquette for 4 1/2 years and we have one son Theodore who is 3 1/2 months old.
I grew up outside of Zanesville, Ohio on 10 acres.
child labor?
Perhaps my love of photography started there. In high school I spent weeks scouring ebay looking for the perfect (and cheap) slr (film of course) to display my growing passion for the beauty of the great outdoors. I've inherited my father's love of nature. It amazes me that God created something so beautiful for us to enjoy.
Well, I eventually found a slr that met all of my requirements and began shooting anything and everything. My parents even bought me a brand new Canon Rebel for my 17th birthday, which as you can imagine just made my day.
College came and photography went. I don't know what happened, my interest in taking pictures just dropped. I think part of it was the advancing digital age and my lack of funds for a $800 camera and the other part was meeting Brad at Ohio University and having a little too much fun drinking root beer:)
my, my we were young:)
So how in the world did I get to be be a professional photographer in Columbus, Ohio? No I did not go to school for photography...or even art for that matter. Well Ok, I spent one quarter as an art therapy major at a college in Erie Pennsylvania but, well, that's another story.
Brad and I got married halfway through our college career. Yes we were young and yes we were in love. And we're still in love.
So there.
I finished up one more year at Ohio University and decided I had had enough. Athens bored us and we felt left out. We were finished with the crazy college scene and craved a more "normal" married life. So one night I had a fantastic idea. I would transfer to Ohio State!
Yay! I was accepted. I finished my sociology degree at OSU and unsuccessfully tried to find a job. Sociology is an interesting major but not so great when it comes to making it a career. I worked as the manager of a coffee shop in the OSU med center for about half a year before my husband and I sold all our possessions, bought a pink campervan and jetted off to see the United States and find a new way of life.
Back up. You did what?
Yea, it was crazy, but critical to my life as it is now. If you want to know more about this you can read hundreds of blog entries at simplyonelife.org.
Short story: Brad and I were unsatisfied with our material driven lives and passionate about Jesus and felt that we must do what Jesus commanded of us: Sell your possessions and give to the poor.
Oh we had quite the time. For 6 months we traveled south and then west and then north and then back east. I took photo upon photo upon photo (Brad had surprised me with a digital SLR for my 22nd birthday a few months earlier:)). We met wonderful people, learned many many wonderful lessons and learned to live with only the things that fit in the back of a Chevy Cavalier (the campervan broke down 2 weeks into the trip- read about that mess here and here).
We lived in Seattle for a month in a house with 3 other roommates - a Mexican gangsta, an alcoholic baby daddy and a 40 some year old dude who worked in Seattle in the summer and traveled in Thailand the rest of the year.
This is where we felt called to buy a house in the ghetto of Columbus and essentially be a good neighbor to those around us. You can read all about this here.
This is also around the same time that a girl who I went to high school with saw my pictures from our travels and contacted me about being her wedding photographer. I fought this and fought this but eventually Brad helped me realize that I wanted to be a photographer. I didn't want to work some crappy job making someone else rich. I wanted to make a meager living being a photographer so I could spend the majority of my time helping others. So I said yes to her and actually ended up shooting 3 weddings before I got to hers.
I've fallen in love with being a photographer.
Last March Brad and I bought this beauty for $10,000. It had no electricity or plumbing. We spent months getting it up to code and moved in sometime mid-June. We take the renovations one room/ project at a time. We now have a bedroom and baby room fully completed, a kitchen and dining room 50% completed, and a bathroom that is usable (that's the next project, yay!). We don't talk about the rest of the house:) Someday, oh someday, there will be a spot for our offices and even my own studio!
It's not in the best neighborhood but we love it. We have the most diverse group of neighbors and we are working on making friends and becoming part of the Woodland Park community. It's not a luxurious lifestyle but it is one Jesus is calling us to, although we aren't quite sure what that means yet:)
This past October I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy, Theo and our lives have been forever changed. He is our joy and gives us greater of appreciation for everything and everyone around us. We are learning how to be parents and also how to live on less sleep:)
I am now in the process of booking weddings for this summer. By the grace of God I have already booked 9 (holy cow, that seems like a lot to me!) and I've still got more consultations to attend and clients to meet:) I am looking forward to meeting new families for portraits and revisiting past clients for pictures of their growing children. I can't wait for a whole new batch of seniors to photograph. I really feel like God has given me this talent and I am trying to use it to the best of my ability. I thank you all so much for your support and compliments and your trust when using me as your photographer. I would not be here without you.
So that, my friends, is why I am here.
Melissa, I know you love photography, but your art of writing is also fantastic. I love reading them! Blogs are great, but have you ever thought about publishing your own book about your life, your journeys, and your philosophy. I am just saying as a future possibility you could do this, take it and make most of the proceeds go to helping the poor/those in need. Take it or leave it! Either way, I still enjoy reading and admiring all of your blogs and pictures.
ReplyDeleteGosh Emily, this comment almost made me cry! It's such a nice thing to hear, I've always struggled with not liking what I write. I recently went back through old blog posts from our trip an realized how much I had enjoyed writing and that I missed it.
ReplyDeleteBrad did start to write a book about some of our travels but didn't get very far. Perhaps it needs to be a collaboration:)
Anywho, thanks so much for the kind words - it really meant a lot to me.