Biography

Hi! I'm Shannon, I'm a portrait photographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.  I studied photography at Fanshawe College in London Ontario and at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

In 2010, I returned home to Markham Ontario after completing my Photography Degree in Australia. Upon my return I accepted the first photography related job I could find which was a position as a sales associate at a well-established camera store that I ended up working at for over 6 years. Through that opportunity I learned a ton about camera equipment and met a number of photographers that helped me get my feet wet in the industry.

At the time I loved shooting moody fashion portraits and spent a lot of my time putting together little teams of people that were all eager to collaborate.  I always did these shoots for fun and never charged a penny so everything flowed organically, sans stress, almost like time and money didn't even exist. 

I didn't realize it at the time but I had really put myself in a great position to grow as an artist by organizing these low pressure shoots. Lacking that awareness I ended up replacing the creative collaborations with other paying opportunities, usually assisting. 

While I enjoyed learning from the paid opportunities, I always wanted my photography career to look more like the creative collaborations that I organized when I was learning how to use a camera.

In January of 2018 I officially launched my portrait photography business with the goal of providing women with portraits that serve as powerful transformational tools. 

Specialization

After spending a decade trying and failing to make it as a freelancer in the notoriously male-dominated field of photography, I developed beliefs that as a woman I would never be strong enough to be a leader in the industry. I believed that I would never own a business and accepted that my income would come to me through other photographers hiring me on as their support.

"Armed" with my beliefs, my view of photography as a profession was slowly getting ruined and I knew that if I didn't start doing things differently the thing I loved the most could turn into the thing that I loath the most. 

I started by finally admitting to myself that what I truly wanted was to be a full-time portrait photographer and no longer an assistant. As soon as I admitted this the fear set in.  The fear of knowing that if that was what I really wanted I was going to have to come out and announce it to the world.  I had spent the last decade of my life excelling at blending in, so the thought of suddenly showing up as a portrait photographer after years of being a retail sales associate was absolutely terrifying.

To help manage the fear I took action by entering a mindset coaching program for women lead by a former wedding photographer.  In the program I learned that fear is actually an extremely common reaction to endeavouring with something unknown, like launching a business for the first time for example. I also learned about many other fascinating topics including self image a.k.a. self esteem and how it governs the way we do literally everything and anything.

Inspired by new understandings and ways of thinking, I realized that I wanted to apply my love for portraiture to becoming a specialist at helping women improve their self image through a bespoke professional photography experience so they can operate from a place of confidence!