Sometimes when I’m talking to potential clients, they will ask me about my training; did I go to school for photography or am I self-taught? The answer is yes to both, but my photography programme was not my first course of post-secondary study. I actually did a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering first. How does one get from engineering to photography? Well, it’s a wiggly path but not as big a leap as one might suspect.
Where It All Started
First, there’s the starting point that in my heart I’ve always been a photographer. I was given my first camera (a Kodak 110) at age nine, and I’ve been capturing the highlights of my life and the people around me ever since. I have a strong creative side to my nature. I love crafting and creating, but my “artistic” skills (drawing, painting, etc.) never lived up to the aspirations I had. Photography has been a way to express my visions without the frustration I experienced putting hand to paper. I think that’s because of the equally strong technical side to my brain.
I Love Science
Declaration : I am a math and science nerd. I like doing math problems for fun. I still get a kick out of working out the technical side of my website, or how to get a series of formulas to show me what I need in excel. Photography really is the scientific stream of the creative arts. Even before the tech in digital cameras came along, understanding the physics of light has been essential to great photography. The Masters have always known how light travels, disperses and reflects, and how to use that to make great images. Add digital technology into the mix and pow! Talk about the meeting of left and right brain.
If you consider the dual creative-scientific nature of photography, I think it starts to become a little clearer how I got here. Combine this with the high-school me who was highly driven by “should” – I was good at math and science so I “should” be an engineer. I thought photography was just something you did for a hobby. Engineering was a career. So off I went to Queen’s University to become an Engineer. I LOVED my time at Queen’s, but mostly the life part of it rather than what I was learning in the classroom. By the time I got to the start of fourth year, I came to the realization that I didn’t want to “be” an engineer. Now what? I figured out that a job in IT consulting would allow me to make use of my technical skills but gradually transition more and more to the human side of technology. After six and a half years in corporate life, I stepped out to start my family, and have never looked back.
Now What?
When my youngest was getting ready to start full-time in school, I knew I was ready for the next career stage of my life. Assorted messages came through the universe to me and the lightbulb went on – photography was my true calling. I loved it. I was pretty good at it. And, I liked the idea of running my own business. I enrolled in the Digital Photography programme at Sheridan College, and the rest, as they say, is history. Sarah Sims Photography was launched early in 2011.
So that is how you get from a degree in engineering to a career as a professional photographer.
