Jesus, Sweet Tea, and Photography (How I started my business!)

Welcome to my photography blog!

Recently I have been getting a lot of questions as to how I got into photography and how I was able to see such growth in my business and so fast. Well my first answer right away is God. Undoubtedly I truly believe that God was fully in charge of my photography career! He orchestrated it completely from the start.

Not a lot of people know this but back in October I was involved in a pretty serious automobile accident. While driving my scooter around Minneapolis I was struck by a vehicle of a distracted driver. My scooter was completely destroyed and I went flying into the air like a rag doll and bounced off the hood of the other drivers car. Take a look at that scooter! Crazy huh!

It was a wild experience! That being said it was a little bit of an eye opener for me. I realized that life can be taken in a blink of an eye and I was reminded of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. (Give it a read sometime!) As a special education paraprofessional I was paired with a teacher at the high school I teach at that knew a lot about photography named Stephan Doherty. He taught me the ins and outs of using a camera and pushed me to pursue my photography career.

I went out and bought a $400 camera and went to work!

I was approached by a friend who wanted me to take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend. Which was awesome there was just one issue...I've never taken pictures of people before! So I ran to my friends Jacob Huff and Allie Garcia. They have been dating for awhile and they were gracious enough to let me take pictures of them! Holy cow I was set, I was able to practice and get my camera ready for the proposal.

Little did I know that these "practice" shots would soon become the springboard I needed for my photography career to take off!

I posted a few of these pics on my Instagram account: @Nickymonaghanphotos I started getting more calls and texts about photography and next thing you know my business caught on like wild fire!

Allie and Jake were great models and the shoot was a blast! Everyone had a lot of fun and we got some pretty great shots. Jake is a linebacker here at the University of Minnesota and we were able to get some shots in the athletic facilities. We went all over Minneapolis including the Stone Arch Bridge, Van Cleve Park, and all over Dinkeytown. It was a cloudy February day and by the end of it my fingers almost froze off! The clouds allowed for a lot of color to come out and more versatile shots.

God really blessed me with some amazing friends and some really fun talents! Here are some pics from that shoot!

Also if you're wondering why I say sweet tea? I don't know I just like sweet tea. So there is the mention of it to justify having it in my title.