Posts in Essay
Getting Comfy with Lifestyle Sessions

I didn’t know it, but I did my very first lifestyle photo session 26 years ago when I first started taking pictures for other people. I was attending home births with a midwife at the time, and one of the very first births I went to was at the home of an earthy young couple with three young boys living in an old house in the city. I didn’t really have the skills, knowledge, or equipment necessary to do birth photography, but I didn’t know that, and the couple had requested that I bring my camera along. So I did.

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The Image of a Photographer

One of the things that has always intimidated me about having a photography business has been the pressure to look good. Yeah, sure, taking good pictures is important. That’s a given. But there’s this unspoken expectation in my mind that, as a photographer, I should have a perfect, instagram-worthy home, a gorgeous studio with shelves and shelves of curated and meticulously organized props, and a clean, bright workspace to edit. And above all that, I should be perfect, too.

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EssayDenice HazlettComment
Finding My Way as a Photographer

I was looking through my Facebook memories yesterday and a photo popped up that kind of took me aback. Someone had asked me to take their portrait, and while I didn't feel qualified, they insisted, and so I said I'd do my best. So I strung up a very wrinkled white sheet, pulled out some construction work lights, and used whatever little very basic, consumer-level camera I had at the time to take what I knew were quite mediocre photos.

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