Meet Shallyn Edgar of Fort Collins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shallyn Edgar

Hi Shallyn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have loved photography since I was very young. I still have photos that I took with my film camera of my 7th birthday party. I really started to fall in love with it in high school while taking a dark room class. After graduating, I started offering to shoot family photos and senior photos for free for people that I knew, and from there started taking photos a lot! I got pretty wrapped up in comparison and self-doubt, and quit multiple times. It wasn’t until I got laid off from a job that I decided to just go for it. That was in 2018, and I have been shooting weddings, and engagement and family sessions, ever since!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Like I mentioned before, comparison and self doubt really got the best of me for a while. I went to The Art Institute in Denver for a year to study photography and ended up dropping out because I didn’t think I was good enough. I quit taking photos for about two years after that, but slowly came back to it.

It’s difficult to find your style and it was hard to create images that I really loved and was envisioning. It took a lot of time, trial and error, failing and starting over, to get to where I am now. Even being where I am now, I still face different struggles but am always trying to grow and figure out how to create work that is beautiful and really feels like something.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I photograph weddings, engagements, and families. Sometimes I venture out of these categories, but usually this is what I am doing! I think I am known for creating images that look and feel like the people in them. What I really care about is serving my clients and nurturing an environment where people can be themselves in front of the camera. I want people to look at the photos I take of them and think, “That looks like me” or “That feels like us”. Not just in the sense of what they see, but more so in the way they feel when they look at the images. I am really proud of being able to document this for others; I am proud and honored that people have trusted me to capture the moments they want to re-live. It’s so important to me to only add to peoples experience, whether it be a wedding day or a home family session, I am proud of the way I have used my skill to serve people and work to make something beautiful for them.

I think this sets me apart from others. I have a genuine desire to create beautiful, meaningful images for the unique person, or persons, that I am photographing. Of course, I want to create art and share it with the world, but if it is not special or meaningful for the people who’ve hired me to do it, it doesn’t feel so special to me either. In some ways, in this business, I care a lot more about seeing people than being seen myself.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Yes! A few things:

1) Remember that everyone starts somewhere and that one of the hardest things is simply to start. Anyone who is a successful creative simply had to start, and then learn and grow from there.

2) Try to find someone who is willing to mentor or pour into you what they have learned and experienced, and do so with respect and care. I would not be where I am if a few sweet photographers who had gone before me didn’t make space to mentor and support me! Investing in this was one of the best things I did for myself.

3) Be cautious with social media. If you’re following a ton of amazing creatives who are super successful and it is causing you to compare or doubt yourself – just stop. Look to things that inspire you and spur you on, and try to limit things that keep you from dreaming, creating and believing in yourself.

4) You will never “arrive”. Be committed to learning and let yourself shift and change as you grow and get more clear about what you want/are trying to achieve. It is all a journey and it changes all the time!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shallynmichellephotography.com
• Instagram: shallynmichelle
• Facebook: Shallyn Michelle Photography

Image Credits
Shallyn Michelle Photography