wander // India in 2008 and how I became a photographer

When I first thought about sharing some old photos from India on the blog, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already done so. Back in the “soft launch” of this blog in December of 2013, I went through some old photos of food and travel so that I would have some content up. I had gone as far back as Thailand and Hong Kong from 2011, but not India, which was in 2008.

The reason it’s so surprising to me is not only because of how much I loved India, and how much India means to me, but because of how much I owe the creation of this blog to India.

Before I was shooting weddings or food, or anything professionally, I was just in college with an entry level DSLR and a love of travel. Actually, before I bought my own camera, I remember visiting my dear friend Brittany while she was studying abroad. We met up in Peru, though she was studying in Ecuador, and for the whole week, I borrowed hers any chance I got to take photos on it. Remember that, Britt?? :) I was hooked and knew I needed my own before I left for India the following fall. At the time, I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was that I loved about having a camera. It might have been the auto focus and the bokeh (though I didn’t know the word back then), but the photos seemed so crisp and new. I loved how they captured everything. I was fascinated by how you could compose a image to be different than what you were seeing with your eyes. I don’t think this was it from day 1, but eventually, I loved how you could tell a story with a photo.

While in India, I became obsessed with capturing stories through my images. I was there for four months studying abroad in Jaipur, a city famous for being called the Pink City (see above photo to understand why), in Northwestern India. My classmates and I joke that we “studied” 3 days a week and traveled 4 days every weekend. There were so many festivals and holidays that gave us days off from school, but ultimately I’m grateful because our teachers wanted us to get out and experience the country we were in for such a short time. We traveled all the way north to the Himalayas, and all the way to the southern-most tip of the South Asian continent. Through it all, my camera was glued to me. There were some other really great photographers on the trip with me, and I’m so thankful to them because I really learned a lot about taking a good photograph. I watched how they carefully composed shots and I learned to do the same. I sought out people and color in my photos. Fortunately, in India, you have a lot of both of those things.

Apparently I had earned a reputation as a photographer while being gone, because when I returned, friends were asking me to take engagement photos left and right. I had no idea what I was doing, or that I’d end up enjoying taking them as much as I did. It’s kind of funny actually, how the career I have today sort of “just happened.”

But it did. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I worked really hard to build my business once I decided this was something I wanted to pursue, but in so many ways I sort of just fell into it. For the next 5 years, I photographed so much for others that I really lost that sense of shooting for myself and capturing what I loved. I love weddings, and I love being able to document someone’s personal day authentically, for them to have those memories for generations to come. The reality though, is that those photos are my clients’ memories, not mine. It can be so easy when you do what I do, or even when you are any type of creative professionally, to stop being creative for yourself. Yet we need that. We need our own outlets so that we can continue to be refreshed and be our best for our clients.

That’s kind of how Wildlyspun came to fruition. At the end of 2013, I was feeling incredibly burnt out. I photographed 23 weddings and traveled out of state for half of them. That meant a lot of weekends away from Jason, and a lot of days spent recovering in bed after waking up at 4am to fly the day before. It also meant a lot of days staring at a computer screen editing during the best time of year. I felt pretty lost and confused as to why I was doing any of it. While this blog had a slow beginning, and still is in it’s toddler phase, it has been such an outlet and a reminder to me to continue to pursue being the kind of photographer I was when I first picked up a camera in 2008.

So deep down, in a long and winding way, Wildlyspun has India in 2008 to thank for it’s existence. Wow, if you made it this far, I am so impressed with you. Thank you for reading. Seriously, it means so much. While it’s a blessing in and of itself for me to share life via this blog, it’s even more amazing to know that others might enjoy the stories as well.

I realize I hardly talked about India, but there was a lot of background to cover in this post, so stay posted for future posts with more stories and photos. Thank you thank you again for reading!!

Jasmine