My Photography Journey
Hey there!
If we haven’t met yet, my name is Sydney, and I am the head photographer of Sydney Rose Portraits LLC! Welcome to my website and brain ramblings of the day! Today, I will be sharing my journey as a photographer. I hope you enjoy it! After constantly being drawn (pun intended) to art but never finding the perfect medium, I began my photography journey in high school. I took a job working with one of my mom’s friends, who happened to be a newborn photographer in Augusta, GA, and started helping her design her unique sets for cake smashes. I was so excited to learn from her that I took a photography class in my sophomore year. I quickly caught on to the art after learning about film, development, camera settings, and all the basics. So much so that I knew this was what I wanted to continue doing throughout my life.
However, the gifted and talented kid in me could not give up on science yet, so I decided to go to a boarding high school called The Governors School for Science and Math in Hartsville, SC, for my junior and senior years. After switching high schools, I decided to take my passion to the next level by establishing a photography club, crafting exhibitions in town for the students and sharing our passions/knowledge. Then, once graduation was upon us and we had to decide where we would go for college, I was torn between botany and art school. But, again, I still couldn’t completely give up on science (plus, SCAD was much more expensive than Clemson, lol). Upon arriving at Clemson University, I landed an internship with the University Photography Department, which allowed me to learn from three amazing photographers and try my hand at all sorts of subject matter. I loved these photographers, and they loved me so much that I eventually started assisting weddings with them!
Over time, I honed my skills in gear management and further developed my photography expertise by second shooting alongside professionals like Sposa Bella Photography, Ashley Jones, and Josh Wilson. Still doing all of this while in school full-time and having a second internship where I researched blackberries, I magically graduated undergrad with a degree in Biology and could no longer do the photography internship with the University. And then do you know what happened? COVID PANDEMIC. So, I did what any recent graduate would do and decided to go to grad school.
Throughout grad school, I kept my budding photography business going with seniors, weddings, and couples and occasionally filled in when the President of Clemson needed me at games in the suite. Then, after two more years, I was graduating again. I had conducted research and written a thesis but had no idea what I wanted to do with my Master’s in Plant and Environmental Sciences. However, my old boss over in the photography department of the University let me in on a new job opening in their office for another photographer. And you can bet that I jumped on that opportunity so fast!
Now, I have been in that position for going on two years and wouldn’t have changed my journey in any way. Around the same time, I took the significant step of making my photography business officially legal, and have been loving every minute of this crazy life with you all.
Photos by Jordan Wheeler of The Wheeler Photo
