[Music]
you
an underwater portrait photographer is
exactly what it sounds like I take
pictures of people underwater for living
in Billings Montana
now nothing about that sentence should
make any sense there is no logical
reason why I should have that career
based in Billings I do not own my own
swimming pool so I’m limited to shooting
in places around Billings Montana that I
can borrow which there aren’t a lot or I
have to shoot outside in the lakes in
Montana which most of you probably know
are positively freezing so I can only
realistically shoot about three or four
months out of the year now I should tell
you this isn’t something I always knew
that I wanted to do I was never that
person I was taking in photography
classes in high school I didn’t major in
photography in college I never had my
camera on my hip I’m always taking
photos of people that wasn’t me that’s
not how this got started now I always
dreamt of having a creative career I
always wanted a job I would be
passionate about but when I started
college I was told to major in something
practical something real so you get a
real job that makes real money and have
a real house and a family and everything
that goes with it so my first semester I
majored in aerospace engineering which
wasn’t a great fit so I switched to
physics and then biology and then
psychology and all of this switching
from one major to the next should have
been a sign I should have realized then
this was the voice in the back of my
head imploring me to please do something
that I truly cared about but of course I
didn’t listen and by the spring of 2011
I was finishing up my internship for a
master’s program I had already been
accepted into medical school taking the
MCATs was set to leave in the fall and
it hit me how unbelievably and utterly
depressed I had become I came home I
told my now husband if I don’t make a
drastic change right now if I don’t do
something creative and meaningful for a
living I’m going to collapse into myself
like a dying star and he agreed
immediately problem was I didn’t know
what that was so I made a list I thought
of every single creative job I could
possibly think of from actor sculptor
painter
a graphic designer breakdancer any
creative job in any creative field it
went on the list and then I narrowed it
down based on three criteria one I
wasn’t moving
my husband’s entire family lived in
Billings I grew up in Montana we both
loved it here we weren’t going anywhere
– I wasn’t going back to school I had to
accept the fact that any career I chose
had to be something that wasn’t going to
add to my already current existing
student debt of about $40,000 and three
I had to take anything off the list that
I couldn’t physically do so starting a
career as a ballet dancer at 27 years
old with zero dance experience I wasn’t
going to physically be able to do that
at the end of this process I was left
with four options writer musician cake
decorator and photographer on a hunch I
chose photographer I didn’t even own a
camera so I ordered one on eBay and the
instruction manual that came with was
entirely in Spanish which I do not speak
which meant a lot of lights on YouTube
researching buttons and knobs and
settings and terminology and googling
actual phrases like how to take good
photos and at the same time I was also
researching how to build a business out
of this
so who hires me for this how much do I
charge how do I do any of this I started
taking photos of families and high
school seniors and then I gradually
we’ve been to weddings where I found I
could make a pretty steady income and
weddings were kind of my jam for a while
and within a year I had created a
profitable business problem was I was
bored again so I started experimenting
with some more artistic forms of
photography and I found myself toying
with the idea of shooting portraits
underwater I hadn’t seen it done a whole
lot and it seemed kind of impossible
which is really attractive to me but the
more researched underwater photography
gear the more I found that it was
incredibly expensive
we had a mortgage my husband was working
as an assistant baseball coach at the
time we did not have a huge disposable
income to buy this stuff so instead I
thought I’d build my own now I went
through about six different prototypes
all of them failing miserably
mostly due the fact that I won
completely underestimated the amount of
water pressure that resides just a few
inches below the surface and – when it
comes to conventional building materials
I found out that the term waterproof
doesn’t mean waterproof there were a lot
of casualties that’s my camera and a
bowl of rice turns out that little trick
for pulling water out of iPhones doesn’t
work at all with cameras but after about
six months of experimenting I finally
had one that worked and prototype number
six or Calypso is made out of PVC pipe
superglue and Plexiglas to test it out I
brought down to a local hotel that had a
swimming pool and I just pretended to be
one of the guests and walk right to the
back carrying something that admittedly
looks very much like a pipe bomb I just
got in the water I put my camera inside
and I attached an automatic shutter
release so it would just keep firing and
firing until the card filled up I sealed
it up and I wedged it under the pool
ladder and I would go out in front just
dance around in front of it and I would
come over periodically and feel the
sides and if I couldn’t feel the shutter
vibrations anymore I knew the card was
full so I pull it up take the card out I
download it onto my laptop sitting
poolside and put the card back in and do
this again and again and again and later
that night I went home and I went
through about 10,000 images only one was
decent not great but it was proof that
it works though I should also mention
I’m allergic to chlorine so as I’m
sitting at home going through thousands
of images my eyes were burning and
swelling shut my ears were ringing my
entire body was covered in some rash and
all for a photo that wasn’t even that
good and all I could think was this is
awesome
if only I could do this for a living I
thought you know what why the hell not
so I sat down and I made a list of
everything I thought an underwater
portrait photographer career might
entail what would this look like in
reality what kind of people would hire
me for portraits what businesses or
industries could benefit from somebody
with this particular skill set and as I
forced myself to answer these questions
this fantasy job that I had made up in
my head 20 minutes ago start to become a
very real very tangible career right
there on the paper everything I wrote
down that day is exactly what my career
is based on today I now take a variety
of underwater portraits ranging from
maternity to Family Photos highschool
seniors who are surfers and swimmers to
underwater engagement sessions I travel
the world and shoot underwater
advertising campaigns for swimwear and
tourism I work with modeling agencies
and help them expand their model
portfolios and my favorites I get to
display my work in art galleries and
licensed images to book covers and album
covers it’s so often we think of our
passions as just fantasies and we never
dig any deeper than that
we remain unhappy and dissatisfied for
years based on preconceived constraints
of a career and a life we never fully
explore chances are your dream business
probably has a very realistic set of
steps required to make it happen and
those steps will be difficult those
steps will be confusing and it’s the
first time you’ve ever contemplated
turning whimsical fairytales into a
legitimate business those steps will
also probably seem impossible but the
longer we keep those ideas locked away
in a box
the longer they remain just this mess of
hopelessly complicated variables so sit
down grab that pen and piece of paper
and work through those variables and
before you know it you too may turn your
dream business into your day-to-day
reality thank you
[Applause]
you
an underwater portrait photographer is
exactly what it sounds like I take
pictures of people underwater for living
in Billings Montana
now nothing about that sentence should
make any sense there is no logical
reason why I should have that career
based in Billings I do not own my own
swimming pool so I’m limited to shooting
in places around Billings Montana that I
can borrow which there aren’t a lot or I
have to shoot outside in the lakes in
Montana which most of you probably know
are positively freezing so I can only
realistically shoot about three or four
months out of the year now I should tell
you this isn’t something I always knew
that I wanted to do I was never that
person I was taking in photography
classes in high school I didn’t major in
photography in college I never had my
camera on my hip I’m always taking
photos of people that wasn’t me that’s
not how this got started now I always
dreamt of having a creative career I
always wanted a job I would be
passionate about but when I started
college I was told to major in something
practical something real so you get a
real job that makes real money and have
a real house and a family and everything
that goes with it so my first semester I
majored in aerospace engineering which
wasn’t a great fit so I switched to
physics and then biology and then
psychology and all of this switching
from one major to the next should have
been a sign I should have realized then
this was the voice in the back of my
head imploring me to please do something
that I truly cared about but of course I
didn’t listen and by the spring of 2011
I was finishing up my internship for a
master’s program I had already been
accepted into medical school taking the
MCATs was set to leave in the fall and
it hit me how unbelievably and utterly
depressed I had become I came home I
told my now husband if I don’t make a
drastic change right now if I don’t do
something creative and meaningful for a
living I’m going to collapse into myself
like a dying star and he agreed
immediately problem was I didn’t know
what that was so I made a list I thought
of every single creative job I could
possibly think of from actor sculptor
painter
a graphic designer breakdancer any
creative job in any creative field it
went on the list and then I narrowed it
down based on three criteria one I
wasn’t moving
my husband’s entire family lived in
Billings I grew up in Montana we both
loved it here we weren’t going anywhere
– I wasn’t going back to school I had to
accept the fact that any career I chose
had to be something that wasn’t going to
add to my already current existing
student debt of about $40,000 and three
I had to take anything off the list that
I couldn’t physically do so starting a
career as a ballet dancer at 27 years
old with zero dance experience I wasn’t
going to physically be able to do that
at the end of this process I was left
with four options writer musician cake
decorator and photographer on a hunch I
chose photographer I didn’t even own a
camera so I ordered one on eBay and the
instruction manual that came with was
entirely in Spanish which I do not speak
which meant a lot of lights on YouTube
researching buttons and knobs and
settings and terminology and googling
actual phrases like how to take good
photos and at the same time I was also
researching how to build a business out
of this
so who hires me for this how much do I
charge how do I do any of this I started
taking photos of families and high
school seniors and then I gradually
we’ve been to weddings where I found I
could make a pretty steady income and
weddings were kind of my jam for a while
and within a year I had created a
profitable business problem was I was
bored again so I started experimenting
with some more artistic forms of
photography and I found myself toying
with the idea of shooting portraits
underwater I hadn’t seen it done a whole
lot and it seemed kind of impossible
which is really attractive to me but the
more researched underwater photography
gear the more I found that it was
incredibly expensive
we had a mortgage my husband was working
as an assistant baseball coach at the
time we did not have a huge disposable
income to buy this stuff so instead I
thought I’d build my own now I went
through about six different prototypes
all of them failing miserably
mostly due the fact that I won
completely underestimated the amount of
water pressure that resides just a few
inches below the surface and – when it
comes to conventional building materials
I found out that the term waterproof
doesn’t mean waterproof there were a lot
of casualties that’s my camera and a
bowl of rice turns out that little trick
for pulling water out of iPhones doesn’t
work at all with cameras but after about
six months of experimenting I finally
had one that worked and prototype number
six or Calypso is made out of PVC pipe
superglue and Plexiglas to test it out I
brought down to a local hotel that had a
swimming pool and I just pretended to be
one of the guests and walk right to the
back carrying something that admittedly
looks very much like a pipe bomb I just
got in the water I put my camera inside
and I attached an automatic shutter
release so it would just keep firing and
firing until the card filled up I sealed
it up and I wedged it under the pool
ladder and I would go out in front just
dance around in front of it and I would
come over periodically and feel the
sides and if I couldn’t feel the shutter
vibrations anymore I knew the card was
full so I pull it up take the card out I
download it onto my laptop sitting
poolside and put the card back in and do
this again and again and again and later
that night I went home and I went
through about 10,000 images only one was
decent not great but it was proof that
it works though I should also mention
I’m allergic to chlorine so as I’m
sitting at home going through thousands
of images my eyes were burning and
swelling shut my ears were ringing my
entire body was covered in some rash and
all for a photo that wasn’t even that
good and all I could think was this is
awesome
if only I could do this for a living I
thought you know what why the hell not
so I sat down and I made a list of
everything I thought an underwater
portrait photographer career might
entail what would this look like in
reality what kind of people would hire
me for portraits what businesses or
industries could benefit from somebody
with this particular skill set and as I
forced myself to answer these questions
this fantasy job that I had made up in
my head 20 minutes ago start to become a
very real very tangible career right
there on the paper everything I wrote
down that day is exactly what my career
is based on today I now take a variety
of underwater portraits ranging from
maternity to Family Photos highschool
seniors who are surfers and swimmers to
underwater engagement sessions I travel
the world and shoot underwater
advertising campaigns for swimwear and
tourism I work with modeling agencies
and help them expand their model
portfolios and my favorites I get to
display my work in art galleries and
licensed images to book covers and album
covers it’s so often we think of our
passions as just fantasies and we never
dig any deeper than that
we remain unhappy and dissatisfied for
years based on preconceived constraints
of a career and a life we never fully
explore chances are your dream business
probably has a very realistic set of
steps required to make it happen and
those steps will be difficult those
steps will be confusing and it’s the
first time you’ve ever contemplated
turning whimsical fairytales into a
legitimate business those steps will
also probably seem impossible but the
longer we keep those ideas locked away
in a box
the longer they remain just this mess of
hopelessly complicated variables so sit
down grab that pen and piece of paper
and work through those variables and
before you know it you too may turn your
dream business into your day-to-day
reality thank you
[Applause]
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