We were lucky to catch up with Laramie Renae recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laramie, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I was thrown into photography very quickly. My career is completely self made, but not without the support of my husband and friends, and the photographers who allowed me to shadow and assist them.

I am self taught and Youtube was my holy grail for the first couple of years…and honestly still is. But there is nothing like learning from other photographers. I found an amazing local photographer here who hired me for some second shooting, and the more I photographed alongside him, the more I learned. There is no way I would be where I am, or have the skills that I have, without the people who taught me and gave me a chance.

Looking back, I definitely would have benefited from being an assistant for a while, and learning more before building my own business– but that’s not how life handed me this opportunity. Sometimes you have to just adapt and move forward. No regrets.

Laramie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Like I said, I was thrown into photography very abruptly in 2019. I had done some video on the side while being a musician, so I understood composition and had a natural feel for how to create in the visual medium. The day job I had been working came to a sudden stop and I just picked up the camera that I had been lent, and went to town. By the end of 2019 I had shot my first wedding, had a good handful of portraits and traveling under my belt, and was looking forward to a full 2020.

We all know how 2020 turned out :) Honestly, this was a great year for me. I made so many amazing connections and was able to step in last minute for many couples whose wedding plans had changed dramatically. I’m so proud of how my business grew and how I have changed as an artist from 2020 to now.

My clients and friends know me for my candid, documentary style. While I do pose my couples and families, I’m really not interested in if things come out perfect. I’m interested in the in-between moments, the laughing moments, the crazy moments. I want people to be able to look back at their photos and feel like they’re transported right back to that natural moment. My brand is very authentic. I’m only interested in capturing people as they are.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve learned that nothing is ever perfect, and my work is always so much better than I think it is! You can stare at a project or product for an endless amount of time, nit pick it to death…it will never be perfect. My clients love their photos every single time. So I’ve had to learn to take a breath, and accept that I can’t be a perfectionist with this art. While I can and should be intentional and skillful in how I do my job, expecting everything to be 100% without flaw is just not realistic.

So my encouragement is to take a breath, maybe take a step back, and let your work speak for itself.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think that the most rewarding thing about being a photographer, capturing weddings, elopements, families, and portraits, is that I get to freeze time and memories for people. I get to capture moments that they’ll be able to love forever. These moments we don’t get back, I get to capture them. And I don’t take that lightly. There will be beloved individuals present at weddings or family events that might not be with them next time they’re together. These moments matter. I love being able to preserve little bits of these memories.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.awanderingcreative.com
• Instagram: @awanderingcreativephoto
• Facebook: awanderingcreative
• Youtube: awanderingcreativephoto

Image Credits
@awanderingcreative