Looking Back on Year One of We, The Light Photography

June 8th marks one year of serving and loving people in the best way that I know how: photography. My biggest fear here is how to truly express all the emotions welling up inside of me without looking like another sappy, cheesy, “I’m doing what I love” person. I don’t want at all to come off as perfect or living the good life, but, I do have to be as real as possible about the overwhelming sense of peace that is flooding my life right now.

A year ago, I was sitting down for happy hour at a local Mexican restaurant, catching up with a best friend of mine (eating way too many chips and salsa!). This friend is a lady who knows me inside-out and has seen my biggest inadequacies and failures along the way. I remember feeling a huge lump in my throat, as I know so many people who have decided to share a deep piece of their heart have, and I told her “I want to start my own photography business and it’s going to be called We, The Light Photography, is that too cheesy?”.

I had been doing photography for fun for the past five years, but had never officially done a photo shoot for other people, so I had no justification for my desire to start this business other than God was nudging me that it was finally time. Well, my friend, with grace and encouragement and knowing the deepest fears of my soul, my friend said I should absolutely go for it. Then she proceeded to volunteer her and her hubby to be in my first official photo shoot.

So, here is the photo shoot that started it all for me:

This was June 8, 2016, and now a year later I am so thankful to own, run and build my own business. I was interviewed to be featured on a business Instagram account (@mydubsado) the other day and they asked the grand old question of “Tell us a little about what you do?”. To be honest, I didn’t want to just say I’m a photographer – it was too cliche and doesn’t capture the importance of why I am a photographer. So, this is how I laid it out:

“My name is Larissa and I just try to love, serve and encourage people. I have found that I do that best through photography. I truly believe that if people just knew that they are gifted and their gift (whatever it is) is not meant to be hidden, then the world would be a much better place. So I do my best to learn about people and encourage them to follow their passions through capturing their raw and authentic personality in a photograph.”

I want to thank YOU for following along on this journey. Thank YOU for believing in me too. Thank YOU for being willing to open up your life to be captured. I hope that maybe, just possibly, I’ve given you a little bit of hope and encouragement over the past year that you are capable of so much more than you believe.

As I think of all the people I have been able to serve over the past year, I also get caught up in the thought that I am not exactly where I want to be either. Doing photography 100% of the time and serving more people is where I want to be. I constantly compare my one-year-old business to photographers who have been doing this for 3, 5, 10+ years.

As I enter this summer season, I can’t hep but have an overwhelming sense of peace that I am on the right track and that if it was easy and effortless, then anyone would do it. I may not be exactly where I wish to be, but I’ve decided that it’s no fun when you have no where forward to go! I am accepting the learning process as never-ending and I know that even if I inspired only one person to believe in their talents and dreams, that it is worth moving forward (even if that one person is my husband who is chasing down amazing dreams of his own right now!).

So here we are: June, 2017. The sun’s shining outside, I am looking out my office window (a.k.a. my bedroom) at the Colorado mountains, and I am deciding to take each day one at a time and continue talking to and serving you in the best way I know possible. Who knows where the next year will take this little business of mine. I have big, God-sized dreams (you know, the kind that just seem impossible without faith and a miracle) that I don’t know how to accomplish at the moment. BUT, if it was easy, everyone would do it. So, go be you and bless people in the best way that you know how – I will be cheering you along every step of the way!