A photographer is a professional who makes photographs for a living. They are likely to take photographs for a session and image purchase fee, by salary or through the display, resale, or use of those photographs.

Career: Photography

What was your motivation for taking this career path?

Haha. This would assume there was a plan to do this. There wasn’t a plan! It was a gradual shift from one profession (teacher: Language Arts 7-12) into what had been a hobby of mine. My grandfather, who had been a life-long hobbyist photographer, introduced me to it. Through college and grad school my interest grew. I then took a job in Public Relations rather than teaching, and the shift continued. Eventually, I realized I was not cut out to be an employee anymore at that point in my life. I launched a full-time freelance career. It wasn’t so much a plan or motivation as it was answering the inevitable.

What do you do on an average day?

There is no average day! But to aspiring artists I would say this: there’s far more “business” to the business of being an artist than one initially thinks. There is time spent marketing, communicating with clients, managing projects, doing accounting etc. That’s not the “artist” part per se. But if you cannot do that successfully, you have a hobby not a career.

How do you express your faith through your art?

In every interaction. I hope to do that through my principles applied to business and daily behavior. Some of that has to do with which clients I choose and do not choose.

Education:

Union College – Language Arts Education

Univ. of Central FL - M.A English: Creative Writing

Principal, Stenbakken Media

Erik Stenbakken

Photographer